Man Leads Police On Violent Car Chase, Shootout That Ends In A Crash

On august 11, Justin Venegas, a suspect in a May 20th carjacking was on covert surveillance when he carjacked a white Chevy Avalanche at gunpoint.

Assistant Sheriff Andrew Walsh gave an update on the hour-long pursuit.

The air unit recorded Venegas taking the vehicle and that’s when the hour-long, 47-mile police chase started. A pursuit was initiated after Venegas failed to stop for officers attempting to pull him over, Walsh said.

An unmarked police cruiser was disabled when it rear-ended the stolen car near N 5th and Carey. The officer was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, Walsh said.

Another unit took pursuit, but Venegas fired towards the officer’s car hitting the windshield. One of the officers in that car returned fire but missed Venegas’s truck.

Walsh said after that Venegas blocked a car on the roadway of Desert Inn and Jones and attempted to steal a car from a woman at gunpoint. In the surveillance footage from the Metro helicopter, you can see Venegas firing towards the woman as she backed away.

Venegas got back into his prior stolen vehicle and continued pursuit to Desert Inn and Decatur where he again failed to carjack a man, according to Walsh.

Venegas got back into the stolen vehicle and drove towards officers. Several officers fired at the vehicle, but the suspect was not hit. He continued North toward Charleston and Decatur where he hit a k-9 police cruiser head on. The officer behind the wheel was injured.

“He’s banged up pretty good,” Walsh said. “You get hit head on by someone trying to kill you at 67 miles an hour, we’re very fortunate that we’re not burying that officer, or the officers that were shot at.”

Venegas was charged with multiple felonies. This is including three counts of attempted murder of a police officer and one count of attempted murder.