NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Video shows how a high-speed police shootout played out last month. It started with an armed robbery in Santa Fe and ended more than an hour away in Torrance County. Video shows officers having to return fire through their own windshields as the suspects shoot at them going 100 mph.
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The incident started at a Starbucks drive-thru in Santa Fe on November 26 on St. Francis Drive when a female driver placed an order then pulled a gun, demanded money. After she receives the cash, she speeds off. Santa Fe County deputies catch up with the vehicle and the chase begins.
It becomes clear that the female suspect, later identified as Christean Dimas had switched seats with a man, Jacob Montoya, and Dimas beings to open fire from the passenger seat. New Mexico State Police officers and deputies returned fire, some of them shooting through their own windshields. The chase reaches speeds of 100 mph. One deputy tells the other officers over the radio, they need to open fire.
Dimas then takes a new position and continues shooting. The half-hour chase ended on U.S. 285 near Clines Corners. A SWAT team arrived and began negotiating with the two suspects with no word until Montoya appeared. Montoya gave himself up suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The passenger, Dimas, was found dead in the back seat.
Montoya currently has five felony cases against him including fleeing from officers. Dimas had several warrants for drug possession and robbery. One NMSP officer says they went through several clips each, adding up to more than 100 shots.
