Grants PD arrest prison escapees

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — A dangerous and dramatic incident where an escaped felon shot at Grants police officers took place in Grants early Wednesday morning — two armed male escapees from a Kansas prison, and a former female corrections officer from the same prison, who was also armed — were arrested.

Steven A. Ford, 26, and Jesse L. Bell, 33, both of El Dorado, Kan., were arrested on felony escape warrants from Kansas, with additional local charges stemming from the incident filed against them. The woman, Amber Goff, 26, also of El Dorado, worked up until Oct. 11, and was involved in an “inappropriate relationship” with Ford, a Kansas corrections department spokesman said.

Police were called about 1:30 a.m., regarding two men walking through a parking lot and looking into cars at the Vista Mesa Villa, apartments, 1131 Mount Taylor Drive, Grants Police Detective Moses Marquez said.

Sgt. Jason Fank and Officer Jesse Nieto responded to the call and saw the pair run outside after entering one of the two apartment buildings.

After a short foot pursuit, Bell was caught with a .22-caliber handgun in his possession and, as officers were struggling to place him in handcuffs, Ford shot at the officers four times with a .40-caliber handgun. No one was injured.

Ford then ditched the gun and ran to the other side of the building, which faces Los Alamitos. He was found by officers while hiding between cars some time later.

The attempted escape by Bell through a hole in a wooden fence, and the shooting, took placed on the southeast side of the apartment building in a field away from the school.

Cibola County Sheriff's deputies and New Mexico State Police responded to a “shots fired” call for assistance and a few minutes later, following a quick search of the area, Ford was caught with the assistance of Sheriff's Deputy Jessie Terrazas.

Marquez said the .40-caliber handgun was found in tall grass just a few yards away from where Ford shot at officers from the fence.

After both were in custody and police learned they were escapees from the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas, a national crime database report named Goff as an accomplice. Fank had encountered her in the parking lot early in the incident in a blue Ford.

A “Be On the Lookout,” similar to an “Attempt To Locate,” was issued to all law enforcement agencies and at 3:30 a.m., Goff was found in the car in a driveway of a vacant residence in the 800 block of Santa Marina Drive, said Grants Police Chief Marty Vigil.

Officers surrounded the car and, after arresting Goff, found a .357-magnum handgun on the floorboard of the car, Marquez said.

The two men had escaped from the prison about 8:30 p.m., Sunday, with Goff as the driver of a getaway vehicle, which was stolen, Kansas Department of Corrections, El Dorado Correctional Facility spokesman Capt. Dale Call said.

The men worked their way to an outside exercise area at the prison that did not have video surveillance, only a corrections officer assigned to monitor it, and cut through at least three layers of fencing, with at least one of those layers having alarm wiring, he said.

Call said the trio traveled through Oklahoma City, where they rented a car, a blue Ford Taurus, which was the one the three had with them in Grants.

Bell had a release date of sometime in 2012, Call said. Ford, who had a release date of this month, had a “letter of detain” to be extradited to Missouri for convictions there to serve 20 years in state correctional facilities, Call said. Information on what those convictions were was not immediately available, he said.

“Those officers (Grants) did a stellar job getting those men off the street ,and I am glad that no one got hurt,” he said.

That sentiment was echoed by Vigil and Marquez, who said the men were obviously armed and had nothing to lose.

“They were desperate,” he said.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.