By Kate Wilson
Albuquerque Journal
RIO ARRIBA COUNTY, N.M. — A motorcyclist who died Monday night after being run over by Rio Arriba County sheriff’s deputies responding to a 911 call was testing out a motorcycle before purchasing it from a friend, said Española police Sgt. Christian Lopez.
Witnesses saw 40-year-old Levi Baca of Chili doing tricks with the motorcycle and weaving in and out of traffic on N.M. 76 Monday evening shortly before the 5:30 accident, Lopez said.
“He was going to buy the motorcycle from a friend so we believe he was testing it out,” Lopez said.
After a Tuesday morning autopsy, the state medical examiner reported Baca died of blunt force trauma to his body, Lopez said. Police will have to wait for toxicology reports to come back to know whether drugs or alcohol played a factor in the wreck.
Lopez said at the same time Baca was testing out the motorcycle, police dispatchers received a call from Chimayó about a combative heroin addict. Three Rio Arriba County officers responded - deputies Glenn Gutierrez and Richard Trujillo and Sgt. Martin Trujillo.
The officers each took a squad car, speeding eastbound on N.M. 76 with lights flashing and their sirens going.
According to Lopez:
Baca was headed west on the highway on the motorcycle, but he moved in and out of the eastbound lane as he passed cars in a no-passing zone. When the wreck took place, he was passing a car that, alerted by the officers’ sirens and lights, had slowed to the shoulder.
As Baca passed — traveling west in the eastbound lane — he nearly collided with Gutierrez’s squad car.
Gutierrez veered away and barely missed Baca. As Gutierrez reached for his radio to warn the officers behind him, he heard Martin Trujillo call in that he was involved in a crash.
Baca had almost hit Martin Trujillo’s police car head on. Baca then tried to swerve back into the westbound lane, but there was another car there. He bounced off the back of that car and lost control of the motorcycle.
The bike headed back into the eastbound lane, side-swiping Martin Trujillo’s squad car.
Both the bike and Baca fell to the ground. The impact with Martin Trujillo’s car sent Baca skidding across the road toward Richard Trujillo’s squad car, the third of the police cars on the road.
Richard Trujillo — in an attempt to avoid striking Baca, the motorcycle, passers-by or another squad car ahead of him — veered his car off the road toward a barbed wire fence.
But Baca was sliding across the road too fast, and Richard Trujillo’s car ran over the man before running of the road.
Lopez said the medical examiner believes Baca might have already been dead when he was run over and at the least was unconscious.
Lopez said the sheriff’s officers did all they could to avoid the crash and were not at fault in Baca’s death.
“The only way they could have avoided it was if they hadn’t responded to that call,” Lopez said. “This is one of those things where timing is everything.”
Rio Arriba County Sheriff Joe Mascareñas said the officers involved in the fatal crash took Tuesday off. Mascareñas is strongly encouraging them to seek counseling to deal with the death.
“They are pretty shook up,” he said. “The last one was really taking it hard. But there was nothing he could do. He was off the road almost.”
Copyright 2007 Albuquerque Journal