A man who was on the run from police attacked a truck driver and fled in his big rig, before crashing it into a gas station near the Arizona-California border.
It happened on Wednesday, September 13th in Quartzsite, Arizona.
According to Fox-10 Arizona, a trooper pulled over a Ford Mustang driving on Interstate 10 for a suspended license plates. As the officer was speaking to the driver, identified as 43-year-old Marcos Ricardo Ruiz-Zazueta, a passenger in the Mustang got out of the car and shot at the trooper with a semi automatic weapon.
The trooper was able to get away safely and return fire.
The passenger, 31-year-old Rodolfo Ballardo, got back in the Mustang and fled the scene, leaving Ruiz-Zazueta behind. Ruiz-Zazueta was then arrested and taken into custody.
Ballardo abandoned the Mustang near mile marker 11 on I-10 and ran to a rest stop, where he found a parked semi truck.
Ballardo then broke into the truck, attacked and threatened the driver with a gun, and then stole his rig.
The truck driver suffered only minor injuries in the incident.
Ballardo was later spotted in the stolen semi truck near mile marker 17. At approximately 2:30 a.m. the suspect crashed the semi truck into a gas station on north Main Street in Quartzsite, Arizona.
Officers, as well as Border Patrol agents, fired rounds at Ballardo, who engaged the officers in a shootout, reported AZ Central.
Ballardo was eventually shot and declared dead at the scene. He was from Wasco, a farming community in California.
No other injuries were reported in the ordeal.
According to 12 News Arizona, Ruiz-Zazueta is currently in custody on charges of suspicion of drug offenses, and felony murder in the death of Ballardo. Ruiz and his attorney have not reached out for comment regarding the allegations.
The identity of the truck driver involved in the incident has not been released.
