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VERNAL — Authorities from Utah and Colorado are searching for a driver who fired at least one shot at a Uintah County sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop late Thursday.
The stop began as a suspicious-vehicle call about 9 p.m., according to Uintah County undersheriff John Laursen. When the deputy approached the white sport-utility vehicle, he smelled the odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle, Laursen said.
That's when the driver sped away. The driver stopped once, sped away again, then stopped a second time and shot at the deputy's patrol truck, Laursen said. The deputy was not injured, but the patrol truck was disabled.
Sheriff's deputies from Uintah County and neighboring Rio Blanco County, Colo., were being assisted by Naples City police officers, Utah Highway Patrol troopers, Bureau of Indian Affairs police officers and FBI agents in their search for the driver.
The precise location of the traffic stop was unclear Thursday night. The area being searched is extremely rugged and remote, crisscrossed by oil-field roads that stretch east into Colorado and south into Grand County, Utah.
More information will be posted as it becomes available.
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