Jul. 31—New Mexico State Police are investigating a shooting early Sunday morning in Las Vegas, N.M., between Las Vegas police and a man believed to be a suspect in a homicide in Colorado.
City officers were conducting a DWI stop around 1:50 a.m. Sunday when Robert James Rudichar, 43, of Colorado pulled up beside them in a black Nissan truck and asked if he was in Las Vegas, state police said in a news release issued Monday.
As an officer began approaching Rudichar, he pointed a rifle out of the window of the truck and began shooting, the news release states.
Rudichar drove away from the officers while continuing to shoot at them, the release states, and at least one officer shot back toward him.
“Before Las Vegas police officers could initiate a pursuit, the Nissan abruptly pulled over a short distance from the incident and Rudichar got out of the vehicle with the rifle and laid face down on the roadway,” the news release states. He was taken into custody.
Neither Rudichar, nor Las Vegas police nor the driver officers had pulled over on suspicion of drunken driving was injured in the incident, the release states.
An arrest warrant affidavit filed Monday in San Miguel County Magistrate Court says Rudichar faces three counts of aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon and counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and shooting at or from a motor vehicle.
He did not give a statement to state police, according to the affidavit, but requested an attorney.
Rudichar will be extradited to Colorado for charges he may face there as a suspect in a homicide Saturday evening in Pueblo, state police wrote in the news release.
