Man allegedly locks two people inside U-Haul, leads police on chase in Santa Fe

Two people helping a Santa Fe man clean the back of a moving truck on Tuesday were involuntarily locked inside the vehicle and taken for a wild ride through the city.

Stacy Walker, 50, is charged with two counts each of kidnapping, aggravated assault upon a peace officer and aggravated fleeing an officer, as well as leaving the scene of an accident. He’s being held at the Santa Fe County jail.

Prosecutors have filed a motion to detain Walker until trial, saying he “ignored multiple uniformed officers from multiple agencies, striking some of the units, nearly striking some of the officers, and continuing to flee on flat tires.”

“If the defendant will not obey uniformed officers with lights and sirens, the defendant will not comply with any court orders,” according to the motion.

The incident unfolded around 8 a.m., when the Santa Fe Police Department received a call for a welfare check after someone reported banging on the back door of a U-Haul truck on Richards Avenue, near Interstate 25, according to a statement of probable cause filed in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.

Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office deputies told city police they found the truck near El Gancho Way and tried conducting a traffic stop, but the driver — later identified as Walker — drove off. Walker turned south on N.M. 599 and nearly hit a police vehicle, according to the court document.

Santa Fe police called in additional resources, including a drone that tracked Walker to SWAN Park off Jaguar Drive, where he veered toward a deputy who was trying to deploy a tire deflation device, forcing him to run for safety, Santa Fe Police Deputy Chief Ben Valdez said in a news release.

Walker continued on and drove into oncoming traffic on Cerrillos Road, where he almost hit an officer’s vehicle head-on, Valdez said. With most of the tires deflated, Walker eventually stopped on a sidewalk by Herrera Street, according to court documents.

Officers tried ordering Walker out of the vehicle before firing a shot from a less lethal device, breaking a window, police said. Officers then shot Walker’s leg after he refused to comply with orders, police said.

As police arrested Walker, they heard people in the back of the U-Haul pounding the door, the court document states. Police found a man, who complained of a back injury, and a woman inside.

The man told police they were helping Walker clean the back of the truck when Walker slammed the rear door shut and began “to swerve and drive in a reckless manner,” according to the statement of probable cause.