Sargeant Wride notices a white Toyota Tundra pulled over on the shoulder of the road with its hazards on, the vehicle is facing East, Sergeant Wride is driving West. Wride slows and then turns around so that he can assist the two occupants he noticed in the vehicle. Sergeant Wride sends Deputy Dutson a message through the Spillman system, the system used by the Utah County Sheriff’s office for record lookup and communications, telling him to make sure that his on-person GPS unit is plugged in. He lets him know that he has not received a single from it for a little while, so he needs to check to make sure it is plugged in and working correctly.
Sergeant Wride calls dispatch and reports that he will be doing a motorist assist and calls in the license place of a white truck. “We have a 1046 on SR-73 at mile marker 31, Delta 870 Echo Charley.” Dispatcher responds, “Copy.” In Utah a 1046 is used for a motorist assist call. He then does a quick computer search on the license plate number; it returns that it is valid and belongs to a passenger car. During the initial search a passenger car could be any type of vehicle, a motorcycle, truck, or car. Wride then exits his vehicle and walks to the driver side of the white truck to talk to the driver.
Angel has started arguing with Meagan again about Uncle Buck and him being the cause for her and her mom moving down to Southern Utah. She does not notice that Sargeant Cory Wride has pulled up behind her. They continue to argue.
He leaves a foot path in the falling snow as he walks up to the driver side of the car and knocks on the window. Meagan hears a tapping on the window and looks over to see Sargeant Wride standing outside the car in the snow. She rolls down the window. Noticing the that driver looks like she has been crying asks her, “Are you ok?”. Meagan, the driver responds, “Yes”. Meagan’s eyes are red and swollen from crying. He asks for her license, registration, and insurance.
Megan gets her ID out of her back pocket and has Angel get the registration out of the glove box. They are unable to locate the insurance card, so they had Sargeant Wride the ID, and the vehicle registration. Sargent Wride again asks, “Are you sure you’re okay?”. Meagan says, “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Sargeant Wride goes to his vehicle and then enters Meagan’s drivers license and registration information into the computer. Sergeant Wride then returns to his vehicle with her documentation in hand. The documents show the Toyota Tundra is co-owned by the driver. The driver is a Meagan Grunwald (17). Grunwald is only 17 years old. The passenger is Jose Angel Garcia (27), but that information is unknown to Sergeant Wride at the time.
As Sergeant Wride is checking Meagan’s information, Angel turns to her and says, “If the officer asks you again that you’re okay, you better make sure that you say you’re okay.”
Sargeant Wride returns to the Tundra and talks to the driver again. Sargeant Wride tells Meagan that “Everything checked out.” He again asks her if everything is ok, and she responds that everything is ok. But the years of law enforcement experience tells Seargeant Wride that something is off. He turns his attention to the Angel, he points at Angel and says, “What’s your name?”. The passenger lies to Wride and says, “Jose Ruben Martinez, January 30th, 1985.” Wride writes the information down in a little notebook that he took out of his shirt pocket. Sargeant Wide then returns to his vehicle to check the information.
When Sergeant Wride returns to his vehicle Meagan turns to Angel and says, “Why don’t you just give him your name?”. Angel responds, “Shut your f-ing mouth.” “Just tell him your name.” Again, Angel responds, “Shut your f-ing mouth.” Meagan stares at Angel in unbelief, this is the first time that he has treated her this way. Angel then stops the conversation and just rolls his eyes.
Since Sergeant Wride only has the name and a birthdate, he enters that information into the computer in his police vehicle. First, he tries Jose Martinez with the birthdate provided, as well as expanding it to the year 1992. Not satisfied with what he finds, he tries a search for the full name given and looks for Jose Ruben Martinez with both the exact date and just the year. He searches the local database as well as connecting to the State Driver’s license database. After trying several times to verify that name and date of birth Sergeant Wride is unsuccessful.
Randy is driving his gold Hyundai Sonata as he is returning from work. He notices two occupants in the white truck and sees Sergeant Wride walking from his police vehicle to the white truck with a paper in his hand. This time Wride approaches the passenger side of the vehicle. Talking to Angel, Sargeant Wride says, “What’s your birth date?” Angel gives him a different birth year but the date stays the same. He again asks Angel for his name, Angel gives him the last name of “Espinoza”. “Are you sure this is your name?” Sargeant Wride questions. “Yeah.” Replies Angel. “Are you sure?” “Yeah, I’m sure. I just had a head – like basically a concussion a little bit ago. I’ve been having a hard time remembering stuff.”
Sergeant Wride returns to his police vehicle and starts running the new name in his computer. For the next four minutes he tries different variations of the names given to him by Angel with different birthdates and years. He even adds wildcard characters in the last names and hyphenates them together in the searches.
Unknow to Seargent Wride is that Jose Angel Garcia, the real name of the passenger, had a warrant for his arrest. The warrant was issued earlier in the day for missing his parole check-in. Angel was notified by his mother earlier about the warrant when she texted him, “Are you aware that there’s a warrant out for you?” If Angel had given Wride his correct name, then Wride would have arrested him and he would have been sent back to prison for parole violations.
Brian driving a red Toyota Tacoma is returning to Pizza Hut in Saratoga Springs after making a delivery to City Center in Eagle Mountain. He drives past Sergeant Wride as he is opening his car door and entering his police vehicle. Brian could see the flashing lights on the police vehicle prior to passing it. Brian checks his speed assuming that the officer was finishing up a ticket and would soon be heading east bound on SR-73 behind him.
The snow starts to fall as Wride’s wipers slowly push the snow to the side. As he is looking up the name on his computer. Angel turns to Meagan and says, “Put your foot on the brake.” He then reaches down and puts the car in drive, and pulls out a .40 caliber handgun. Angel tells Meagan, “If you don’t do what I tell you to do, I’m going to kill you and your f***ing family.” Meagan described Angel as if she was looking at the devil. Angel puts the gun on the center console and then points the barrel up towards Meagan’s head.
Sergeant Wride does not notice the Tundra break lights go on. The reverse lights flash on and then off as the car goes from park then into drive, and the break lights remain on. For the next four minutes cars drive by as Meagan sits in the driver seat, with the truck in drive, while Sergeant Wride is busy trying to look-up a fictitious name given to him by Jose.
Carrie a driver for the local garbage collection contractor has just finished her route for the day and is taking her loaded truck to the Fairfield landfill. As she drives west on SR-73 she passes a white truck pulled over on the opposite side of the road with a marked police vehicle parked behind it. She notices Meagan in the driver’s seat looking in the side mirror as if waiting for the officer to bring her a ticket.
Meagan is thinking that she will never see her family again, as Angel turns around in his seat and says, “I’m going to buck him” and then slowly sides the rear window of the Tundra open. “I’m going to buck him in the f***ing head.” Meagan responds crying, “Angel, what do you mean?” You can then see Jose as he points a gun in Sargeant Wride’s direction. The quiet is interrupted by the sound of five shots coming from the truck towards the Sergeant vehicle. The cab of the truck fills with the smell of sulfur and smoke. Meagan’s ears started to ring. The gun is fired just inches away from her ear. The windshield of Sergeant Wride’s police vehicle now has several bullet holes in it. Sergeant Cory Wride slumps in his seat as one of the bullets hits his forehead and another of the bullets enters his neck.
Angel turns to Meagan and yells, “Go, go, go, go, go….” the brake lights go out on the truck, it pulls forward and merges into the lane of traffic. The hazards go off on the vehicle and it drives away, as it drives off two more shots are fired from the vehicle towards Wride’s vehicle. Seven shots total were fired, two of them proved to be fatal leaving Sergeant Wride dead in his police vehicle making his last computer entry at 13:15 on January 30th, 2014.
Brian has now reached the Ranches area in Eagle Mountain and looks in his rear-view mirror. He now sees a white truck coming behind him at a high rate of speed. He moves over to the right lane to allow the vehicle to pass. Seconds later the white truck passes him on the left.
Meagan asks Angel, “Can I get out of the car?” “No, you’re going to drive” and the two of them start struggling over the steering wheel.
Brian thinks to himself that this guy must now be looking for a reckless driving ticket. As the white truck continues eastbound on SR-73. He can see the silhouette of two occupants in the vehicle. The vehicle continues down SR-73 weaving in and out of vehicles. Brian loses sight of the truck as he turns Left towards Pizza Hut.
As the truck passes the Saratoga Springs Walmart Angel tells Meagan, “Turn right, turn right, turn right.” She then turns the vehicle right onto redwood road and starts heading south through Saratoga Springs.
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Next: 20.3 – Police Are Unaware and Fugitives Flee
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