Police chase down same man twice

Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | 9:32 a.m.

Authorities said they had to chase down the same man twice on Monday.

It started with a traffic collision about 8:30 a.m. Monday on U.S. 95 north just past Sahara Avenue. Trooper Robert Lujan was attempting to pull over a car for driving in the shoulder when his Nevada Highway Patrol cruiser was sideswiped by a 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis, Trooper Angie Wolff said.

Lujan was pulling into the shoulder when the Mercury "came flying up from behind him," Wolff said. Lujan was not injured.

The three men in the Mercury jumped out of their car and ran down an embankment. The driver of the car that Lujan was trying to stop saw he was busy and also took off, Wolff said.

The three men from the Mercury were caught 10 minutes later, handcuffed and placed into a different NHP cruiser.

But as that trooper pulled his car into the garage area of the detention center in downtown Las Vegas, one of the men apparently managed to undo his seat belt while handcuffed and opened the car door.

The trooper tried to stop the man but Wolff said the man kicked the door into the trooper and ran away with his hands cuffed behind him. He was caught 15 minutes later hiding under a tarp near the jail.

That man was charged with escape, and he and another suspect were charged with having an open container of alcohol in a vehicle. The driver of the car was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, fleeing the scene of a crash, having no car insurance or registration and driving without a license, she said.

The men were apparently intoxicated and had fake identification cards, Wolff said.