The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – Columbia County Sheriff Rocky Miller was slightly injured last Thursday when he used his patrol vehicle to ram a vehicle attempting to flee the scene of a drug bust. Miller was treated and released from Dayton General Hospital Thursday afternoon after his car went over an embankment and crashed into a guardrail.

According to a Sheriff’s Office press release, the incident began when a car associated with a man wanted in Lewiston on a felony warrant was spotted in the parking lot of the Best Western Hotel in Dayton. According to the release:

“Officers were told that one of the occupants, identified as Alex Ahumada, a 30 year old Lewiston resident, failed to appear in the Nez Pierce County (Idaho) Court for violation of his parole (on February 17), and he has a felony warrant for his arrest. Ahumada also has a previous felony assault, kidnapping, and felon in possession of firearms convictions. Officers were further told that Ahumada has made statements that he was not going to go back to prison, and that he may be armed.”

Columbia County Sheriff personnel were joined by members of the Quad Cities Task Force, consisting of officers from Moscow, Ida., Pullman, Lewiston and Clarkston, as well as Garfield County deputies. Officers were watching the car Thursday morning, and when four people returned to the car, the officers attempted to stop the vehicle.

According to the press release: “That’s when the vehicle accelerated away from approaching marked patrol vehicles in reverse, in an attempt to flee the scene. Seeing the vehicle attempting to flee the scene, Sheriff Rocky Miller used a vehicle intervention technique, striking the front passenger side engine compartment of the suspect vehicle with his marked patrol vehicle and causing the suspect vehicle to spin out of control.

“The Sheriff, unable to stop his patrol vehicle, went over the embankment of the parking lot with his vehicle stopping at the bottom after striking the guard rail.”

A search of the suspects’ vehicle led to the seizure of ¾ pound of what was believed to be methamphetamine, along with $2,700 in cash.

All four occupants of the vehicle were arrested at the scene. They were Ahumada; the vehicle’s driver, Julia Richardson, 31, of Lewiston; Geovanni Sanchez, 22, of Hermiston, Ore.; and Elijio Mendoza, 29, also of Hermiston. All face multiple felony charges in Columbia County Superior Court.