<br/><br/>

<br/><br/>

<br/><br/>

Pursuit From 2/17/2016<br/>Suspects mentioned in this release are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. On February 17th 2016 Deputy Mauldin and Detective J. Nyce initiated a pursuit with Steve Casias from #76 County Road 4903. The pursuit ended at the Navajo Dam. The suspect Steve Casias struck a citizens vehicle as well as deputy vehicles during the pursuit. Witnesses told deputies that Steve Casias and his cousin Marshall Sinig (same guy in the pursuit we released yesterday) were setting up a stolen camp trailer the night before on the property. Thanks to the incredible power of social media, a citizen sent a photograph of the stolen trailer to the victim. The victim contacted the Sheriff’s Office and relayed the photo of the stolen camp trailer. Deputy Mauldin and Detective J. Nyce secured the property for a search warrant. While they were on the property one of the suspects Steve Casias came back to the trailer and saw law enforcement. He was trapped at the entrance so he started driving around the property looking for an escape. He almost struck Detective Nyce with his vehicle. Detective Nyce was able to get out of the way; however, at one point he was almost compelled to utilize deadly force to avoid being struck by Casias’s pickup. Casias ran through a fence and gained access to US 64 where he evaded deputies eastbound toward Blanco. The video shows the rest…. While some tactical errors were made by deputies; they exercised an extreme amount of restraint not using deadly force as the suspect almost ran over the detective and then reached behind his tool box twice purposely disobeying commands. As you can see, the video was cut during the long uneventful stretches to shorten the length. The video does not have audio for the first half. Deputy Mauldin’s audio was not operational; however, we were able to capture additional deputy’s audio as the pursuit concluded. We utilize different cameras in an effort to show the different angles from everyone involved. At the end, the suspect asked the deputies, “What does it take to get you guys to shoot me?” No firearms were located in the suspect vehicle. A large knife was located on the floor under his seat. It was later determined that Casias was reaching behind the tool box tap a fuel filter. The reason for the first stop was because his vehicle was not getting gas. Deputy Mauldin was able to place spike strips under the suspect’s driver’s side rear tire. At the end of the video, you can see Sgt. McCoy break out the passenger window with a rock and deploy a tazer. We want to thank the Citizens of San Juan County. The power of social media has changed everything for law enforcement. The citizens continue to put the squeeze on the criminals day after day by communicating with us! It has become apparent that the citizens are tired of the meth, crime and abuse of our children. The social media response has been outstanding. We have never felt more like a team with our community than now. Criminals cannot hide when the community is watching!