WALSENBURG, Colo. — Following a week on the run, three armed and “very dangerous” Florida siblings were arrested Wednesday after shooting at police during a dramatic car chase and crash in southern Colorado.
A tip led police to suspects Lee Grace Dougherty, 29, Dylan Dougherty Stanley, 26, and Ryan Dougherty, 21, who had been spotted at a camp ground near Colorado City, officials said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
After an officer began tailing their vehicle and then tried to pull them over, the Dougherty siblings led police on a 20-mile (32km), high-speed chase. The suspects — who had two AK-47s among other guns in the car — shot at troopers during the pursuit, authorities said, but no officers were wounded.
The Doughertys were finally stopped when their vehicle crashed and rolled over in Walsenburg, about 50 miles (80km) north of the border with New Mexico, where state troopers deployed “stop sticks” on the highway.
Lee Grace Dougherty — a former stripper who says on her Flickr account that she loves “to farm and shoot guys and wreck cars” — tried to run from the smashed car with an automatic pistol, officials said. She allegedly pointed the gun at an officer, who then shot her in the leg. The 29-year-old was taken to a hospital but was not seriously injured.
One of her bothers made a more successful attempt to run from the site of the wreck, fleeing on foot toward a nearby strip of motels and stores, but he was quickly apprehended by a state trooper. The other brother was taken into custody at the scene, officials said.
Their capture follows a crime spree last Tuesday, when the trio allegedly shot at a police officer who tried to pull them over in Zephyrhills, Fla. Hours later, they allegedly robbed a bank in Valdosta, Ga., dressed in black and carrying two weapons, including what looked like an AK-47 assault rifle. The suspects fired shots at the ceiling and demanded cash before fleeing, according to the FBI.
“We knew we were dealing with some very dangerous individuals,” said Pueblo County Sheriff Kirk Taylor, praising the bravery of the officers involved in the pursuit.
Authorities had rolled out digital billboards in several states that featured the Dougherty’s mug shots from previous arrests. Law enforcement officers shifted their search for the gang to Colorado after the siblings were spotted buying camping equipment in Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
The suspects will spend the night in Pueblo County Jail and will likely be facing a slew of federal charges, Special Agent Phil Niedringhaus of the FBI said during Wednesday’s press conference, adding, “These three have a big legal mess in front of them.”
All of them already have criminal records and it is suspected that their spree was set off after Ryan Dougherty was sentenced to 10 years’ probation and two years of community control monitoring for sending sexually explicit text messages to an 11-year-old girl. He was believed to have cut off an ankle monitor just before last week’s Florida shootout.