High speed chase ends with attempted murder of peace officer
Carla Denver
A high speed chase through the streets of Bridgeport lasted just over one hour and only came to an end when Mono County Deputies blew out the driver’s tire, shattered her window and tazered her in order to gain control of the situation.
On Aug. 7 at 12:50 a.m., Carla Denver, 23, of Bridgeport, Calif. was seen by deputies driving at a high rate of speed on Stock Drive in Bridgeport. When she failed to yield to the deputies the pursuit began. It wound around mostly on U.S. 395 and Hwy. 182, but found its way to the streets of Bridgeport on several occasions, according to a Mono County Sheriff’s Department press release.
Several times during the chase, Denver swerved her car at oncoming traffic, forcing them off the road. The pursuit reached speeds of 90 mile per hour several times and because of public safety concerns, was discontinued on several occasions.
Knowing that Denver was between U.S. 395 and Hwy 108 during one of the dicontinued periods, two deputies parked their vehicles at this junction. Wihtin a short timeframe Denver made a U-turn and drove to the area where the deputies were parked. She proceeded to drive her car at the deputies and the vehicles, which were parked off the highway. Denver hit one of the patrol vehicles, then backed up and tried to run the deputies over before taking off again in the southbound direction toward Bridgeport.
CHP Officers, who were assisting in the pursuit deployed a spike strip that blew out one of Denver’s tires and performed a PIT manuever, forcing her, after driving on the rim for a short distance, to come to a stop. Denver, however locked herself in the vehicle and refused to exit. At this point a deputy shattered Denver’s window. She continued to be uncooperative and deputies used a TAZER in order to be able to take her into custody.
She was transported to Mono County Jail where she is currently in custody awaiting charges for attempted murder of a peace officer, assault with a deadly weapon, failure to yield to a police officer with a disregard for safety, and driving under the influence of alcohol.
One deputy sustained minor lacerations to his fingers during the pursuit termination, but no other injuries were reported by the motoring public which was affected by this incident. -LAK/MCSD
