Video: Red Valley Manhunt
Video Special to the Times - Donovan Quintero
WINDOW ROCK, July 13, 2012
Navajo Nation police officer Gilbert Yazzie, with the drug and gang unit, leads a search of an abandoned house Thursday evening in Red Valley, Ariz. for a suspected drug trafficker who was involved in a high speed chase earlier in the day. According to officer Yazzie, a Chinle police lieutenant clocked the suspect going 89 miles per hour in the Lukachukai, Ariz. area around 7:30 a.m. Thursday morning. A pursuit ensued on Navajo Route 13 when the Hispanic male and his passenger failed to stop and eventually crashed their vehicle in Red Valley. Both men fled the scene and a manhunt began shortly after. Police searched the abandoned vehicle and found nearly six pounds of marijuana, an ounce of meth, over $2,000 in currency and a 9mm handgun. An army of officers later responded to a call from a sheepherder, whose sheep camp is near the top of the Chuska Mountain He called police and said that there was a suspicious person with no shoes on, standing at his fence. Eddy Clayton Thomas, who was identified as the passenger in the abandoned vehicle, was arrested without incident and was transported to Flagstaff where he is awaiting federal felony charges to be brought against him. Navajo police continue to search for the driver of the vehicle who, they say, is still at large. There were no injuries reported.