UPDATED: Hostage Situation on Old Hwy 91
UPDATED: 11:30 AM on FEBRUARY 18th. EDITORIAL RECALL.
We originally were given the image of the police carrying the child away from the incident scene being from Kaylee Mae. We have since found out the original owner of the image was Dan Sheldon who has given us full permission to the image and will be featured in an article about his experience later today. We have done an interview with Dan Sheldon who witnessed the incident.
UPDATED: 9:05 PM on FEBRUARY 17th.
St George PD released a statement. A traffic stop was done and the suspect was in the back seat armed with a baby. The mother jumped out of the car and got police attention. The suspect stole the car in Washington, UT, and took police on a high-speed chase through St. George, Santa Clara, and on Old Hwy 91 over to Beaver Dam and ran into Arizona and Nevada law enforcement resulting in the hostage situation. The suspect was holding a gun to the baby’s head and was taken out by a sniper. The suspect died at the scene. Full article with all known facts in the morning will be released after info collected from media relations of PD depts.
UPDATED: 3:07 PM on FEBRUARY 17th.
Old Hwy 91 is officially re-opened. The child was taken to St. George Regional Hospital. Suspect vehicle secure. The suspect was identified as a Native American male from Nevada. The car was potentially stolen from Las Vegas. Washington County, UT Detectives, and Mohave County, Mesquite PD, SWAT Officials staying on the scene for investigation and closing out the scene. The more up-to-date article will be released with full released information later as soon as the media release is received.
UPDATED: 2:53 PM on FEBRUARY 17th.
The suspect is still alive. Medical transportation is on its way. No other info was released. The child identified as Milo is safe.
UPDATED: 2:35 PM on FEBRUARY 17th.
The status was reported as the suspect is “down” and no word on being deceased or not and the child is safe. No other information released yet at moment.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Old Highway 91, AZ/UT, Beaver Dam/Littlefield, AZ –
There is currently a situation involving a hostage situation with a person who was being chased by police and now has been surrounded by authorities with a child inside the vehicle. The vehicle has been in pursuit by police since Santa Clara, Utah. Old Hwy 91 has been temporarily shut down while the situation is handled. Rumors of SWAT have been called in are rampant. Beaver Dam Schools have been put on lockdown. Shots fired were reported during car pursuit.
Mesquite Police sent out an emergency notification to avoid the area via a warning system and social media posts.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as news and information are released.
It’s so terrifying when swat has to handle the situation and fire shots when a child is in the car. I’m so glad the baby is ok however probably traumatized. So glad they got the suspect. He’s darn lucky he’s alive because many would have completely taken him out.
We got a media release from St George PD recently and suspect died at scene. Article updated and full article tomorrow after we talked to media relations for PD depts involved.