Washington City Police execute ‘high risk’ arrest of man wanted in Mesquite

File photo, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — A St. George man faces numerous felony charges after he allegedly fired shots from inside his truck and rammed vehicles in a parking lot in Mesquite, Nevada, early Sunday morning.

The suspect, 30-year-old Ryan Patrick Hanrahan, of St. George, was booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility while authorities in Mesquite work to extradite him back to Nevada on 11 felony charges.

Booking photo of Ryan Patrick Hanrahan, 30, of St. George, Utah, June 17, 2018 | Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

Those charges are two felony counts of battery with a deadly weapon, six felony counts of discharging a firearm from a vehicle, and three felony counts of breaking, injuring or tampering with a motor vehicle, according to a statement released Monday by the Mesquite Police Department.

Those charges are “already approved by the district attorney’s office in Nevada,” Mesquite Police Department public information officer Quinn Averett told St. George News Tuesday.

The arrest stems from an incident that began early Sunday morning when Mesquite Police officers were called to a parking lot in the 800 block of West Pioneer Blvd. over shots being fired from inside of a truck.

It was also reported that the truck was “ramming into other vehicles” in the parking lot, the statement said.

The suspect fled in the truck while officers were en route to the scene.

Officers were able to identify Hanrahan as the driver of a gray Ford F-150 pickup truck from information provided by witnesses and surveillance footage captured by several nearby businesses.

Footage from one location showed the truck enter Interstate 15 heading north, prompting police to notify law enforcement in Arizona and Utah to be on the lookout for the suspect’s vehicle, Averett said.

Officers with the Washington City Police Department heard the broadcast.

“We were alerted through the dispatch center of the incident down in Mesquite, and an attempt-to-locate broadcast was sent out, so our officers began looking for the vehicle,” Lt. Jason Williams said.

Meanwhile, an emergency warrant for Hanrahan’s arrest was issued in Mesquite.

Shortly after 3 a.m., officers spotted the pickup on Telegraph Street in Washington City. It had front-end damage that matched what was described in the broadcast, along with other identifiers, Williams said.

Officers stopped the truck, identified the driver as Hanrahan and took him into custody on the warrant out of Mesquite.

“Because of the nature of the incident in Mesquite, our officers performed a high-risk stop on him, with guns drawn,” Williams said.

The incident possibly started after Hanrahan had  “some type of altercation with an individual in a bar in Mesquite” and was upset or angry when he got to the parking lot, he said. “That’s the situation to my understanding, but the details aren’t entirely clear.”

Despite there being multiple people and vehicles in the parking lot at the time of the incident in Mesquite, “only two people received minor injuries from the suspect’s vehicle as it was ramming into other parked vehicles,” the Mesquite Police Department statement said.

The Washington City officers were “stellar” in this situation, Williams said, and were able to locate the vehicle quickly and take the suspect into custody, “so everything went really well on our end.”

Hanrahan remains in Purgatory Correctional Facility awaiting extradition to Nevada at the writing of this report.

This report is based on statements from police or other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

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3 Comments

  • mesaman June 19, 2018 at 8:37 pm

    WCPD, job well done. Congratulations on an excellent job.

  • Rob83 June 20, 2018 at 8:11 am

    It’s true. We honestly have the best of the best force in this county. They are always quick and very smart, it helps me feel safe living here.

  • Striker4 June 20, 2018 at 2:20 pm

    Book’em Danno !

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