Chase ends abruptly; two in custody (Del Rio News-Herald)

Chase ends abruptly; two in custody

By Karen Gleason
Del Rio News-Herald

Published February 7, 2009

Two men were detained by federal and local law enforcement officers after a vehicle and foot chase in south Del Rio Friday afternoon.

The chase began about 2:45 p.m. Friday when Del Rio Police Department Officer Mario Cervantes, riding with his training officer, DRPD Cpl. Robert Zaragoza, attempted to stop a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck with Illinois license plates near the intersection of Barrera and Bean streets in south Del Rio, said DRPD Cpl. Fred Knoll.

Cervantes told the Del Rio News-Herald he was stopping the truck because its occupants were not wearing seat belts, as required by Texas law, but the driver of the vehicle refused to pull over.

The pickup, with the marked Del Rio police car in pursuit, wound its way through several streets on the far south side of the city.

The chase took the vehicles on a dirt-and-gravel road that leads to the base of La Loma De La Cruz, a dome-shaped hill also known as Round Mountain, along San Felipe Creek just south of the city limits.

Deep ruts in the roadway along the base of the hill apparently prevented the Chevrolet pickup from driving farther.

Both occupants “bailed out,” leaping from the vehicle and fleeing on foot.

A group of teenagers who live in Brackettville and had climbed to the top of La Loma De La Cruz, witnessed the incident and told Cervantes and Zaragoza the direction in which the pickup’s occupants had fled.

The two men in the pickup pushed their way through stands of carrizo cane that grow along the creek in that area, jumped into San Felipe Creek and swam to the opposite shore.

Pursuing police officers radioed the last known position of the fleeing men to fellow lawmen on the other side of the creek.

Knoll said DRPD Detective David Mercier and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent T.H. Osteen nabbed the two men shortly after they emerged from the creek. Knoll said the two were captured on the Smith Ranch off River Road.

Knoll said later Friday the driver of the Chevrolet pickup has been identified as Juan Pablo Olivas, 21, 204 Cuellar St., and the passenger was identified as George Barba, 21, 302 Eduardo St.

Knoll said Olivas has been turned over to ICE for prosecution on a federal warrant regarding an unrelated marijuana conspiracy case, and Barba will be charged with misdemeanor evading arrest.