st. George — A spike in vehicle robberies reported across the county on Tuesday sparked police broadcasts and began near a gas station in Mojave County, Arizona, and continued through Utah. Hurricane.

On Tuesday, the St. George Police Department sent officers to various parking lots and trailheads across the county after receiving multiple reports of vehicle robberies, including one with a firearm.

Initial reports included multiple vehicles encroaching near trailheads off State Route 18, where officers found a number of vehicles scrambled with broken windows. More than a dozen financial cards, checkbooks and identification documents were seized during the incident, according to an indictment filed in the Fifth District Court.

Following the trailhead incident, a series of vehicular break-ins occurred in the pickleball court area of ​​Horseman Park Drive. At this location, the officer found at least three vehicles with broken windows. Multiple credit cards, bank cards and hundreds of dollars in cash were reportedly stolen in the incident.

Things changed when officers responded to a park at St. James Lane in St. George about reports of several suspects allegedly breaking into a vehicle while its owner was sleeping inside. In that case, the caller told officers that the suspect had broken through the car window and pointed a handgun at them, and the suspect fled in what was described as a black Range Rover-style vehicle, the report said.

While cops were processing this scene, they found another vehicle with a broken window. The owner reportedly told officers $40 in cash, a financial card and a handgun were missing from the vehicle, and officers said the suspect was driving his SUV, which was “Midnight Blue.” I have also obtained eyewitness testimony.

As officers were patrolling the area searching for the suspect, descriptions of the suspects and the vehicle they were driving were found all around Iron County, then as far south as Mojave County, Arizona. was broadcast to the agency of

Video footage captured by Nicolette Metropolus was provided to the St. George News and can be viewed at the top of this report.

The broadcast was picked up by an Arizona police officer who spotted a dark blue Nissan Pathfinder at a gas station in the Littlefield/Beaver Dam area. Officers began chasing the vehicle as it resembled the description on the broadcast — the information was relayed to Utah authorities.

As soon as police officers tried to stop the car on its way north on Interstate 15, the driver rushed north into Utah, the report said. After evading his second traffic stop attempt, the suspect drove over the shoulder of an interstate highway, blocked other drivers, and made an “oTheir dangerous maneuvers,” the officer wrote in the report. Pathfinder continued northward at more than 100 mph, he added.

A flat tire eventually disabled the SUV and caused the chase to end near Mile Marker 18, just north of the hurricane.Both suspects, including the 25-year-old driver, were arrested. Chicago resident Tory Lee Bryant and a 16-year-old passenger, whose identity has not been disclosed.

A search of the interior revealed glass shards scattered on the floorboards on the passenger side. Pathfinder’s window was intact, and officers suspected that debris had fallen onto the floorboards when the suspect was breaking the window to access the car.

Police also found one of the victims a designer bag embossed with the initials of a company associated with it, a cordless drill and a piece of metal commonly used to break car windows, belonging to nine different individuals. It said it recovered more than 100 bank cards and identification documents. belonged to five people.

Bryant was transferred to a purgatory correctional facility and imprisoned on over 20 charges, including: Her one third-degree felony counts each for possession of another person’s identification document and for failing to stop or respond to a police order. Seven class A misdemeanors of vehicle robbery. Two Class B misdemeanors of theft for possession of stolen goods and receipt of stolen goods.

Officers also requested that Bryant be held without bail, citing both suspects’ “prone to fleeing across state lines” and the fact that both suspects were from out of state. Officer Keith C. Burns granted the request Wednesday morning and signed a no-bail order.

Details regarding potential charges related to the teenage passenger have not been made public due to his age.

This report is based on court records, statements from police or other respondents and may not include the full range of findings. presumed innocent until proven guilty or determined by a fact-finder.

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