ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A wanted suspect, who called police to turn himself in, then apparently changed his mind. Police video from the ground and the air shows the dangerous chase that took officers all over town, and eventually onto military property, to get that man into custody. It was a wild chase through Albuquerque last November, lasting hours into the night, and coming to an end on Kirtland Air Force Base with military police swarming the suspect.
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It started a few hours earlier, near Lomas Blvd. and Tramway Blvd., when Albuquerque police got a call about a suspect with a warrant trying to turn himself in. From a white pickup with the engine running, the man, identified as Craig Westmoreland, told Albuquerque Police Department officers he will only turn himself in to the U.S. Marshals. Craig Westmoreland: “That’s the only people that I’ll speak to is marshals.”Officer: “You have a warrant?”Westmoreland: “Yeah.”
The officers try to convince him to turn himself in to them. But instead, he took off, with the officers in pursuit. According to APD, the driver ignored their attempts to pull him over, running red lights and driving at more than 100 miles an hour without headlights on. Throughout the night, officers spotted the pickup a couple of times on I-40, then lost it again. Eventually, with the help of APD’s Air Support Unit, officers tracked the pickup to Kirtland Air Force Base…