By The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two fugitives and the former prison guard who may have helped them escape were arrested Wednesday after a short-lived struggle that involved shots fired at the officers, authorities said.
The arrests ended a search for Steven A. Ford, Jesse L. Bell and Amber Goff that lasted more than two days and spanned some 600 miles after Ford and Bell escaped from a recreation yard at the El Dorado Correctional Facility near Wichita, Kan., Sunday night.
Authorities were investigating whether Goff had a romantic relationship with Ford, and her mother said she mentioned him often.
Police in Grants, about 75 miles west of Albuquerque, answered a call early Wednesday about a ''suspicious guy looking into cars’’ at an apartment complex, said Detective Moses Marquez of the Grants Police Department.
Sgt. Jason Fank and Officer Jessie Nieto chased after two men they saw running from a back door at the complex, catching Bell as he was trying to jump a fence, Marquez said.
Ford, who had hidden between a pair of cars about 35 yards away, fired four shots at the officers as they talked to Bell, Marquez said. Neither officer was struck.
'''Get down, get down on the ground! Let me see your hands!’'' Marquez said the officers screamed at Ford. ''So he just did what he was told.’'
At first, both men were defiant when they were taken into custody. '''We ain’t telling you our name, we ain’t telling you nothing,’'' Marquez said Bell and Ford told the officers.
''But we talked to Bell and he said, ‘You know what, you’re gonna find out sooner or later that we’re wanted in Kansas for escaping,’'' Marquez said.
Goff was found asleep in the driver’s seat of a car parked in the driveway of a vacant home with a stolen handgun in the vehicle, Marquez said. Police also found a stolen gun on Bell.
Bell, Ford and Goff were taken to the Cibola County Detention Center, were they were being held pending extradition to Kansas, Marquez said.
''They only thing they talked about was staying in Tucumcari. Other than that, they didn’t say why they were here or where they were headed,’' Marquez said.
Tucumcari is 164 miles east of Albuquerque.
Bell, 33, was booked on charges of felon in possession of a firearm, evading-fleeing a police officer, possession of stolen property and escaping a prison facility.
Ford, 26, was booked on charges of tampering with evidence, assault with intent to commit a violent felony, felon in possession of a firearm, evading-fleeing a police officer and escaping a prison facility.
Butler County, Kan., prosecutor Jan Satterfield said Goff was charged Monday with aiding an escape from a correctional facility and aiding a felon after an escape. She was booked on that warrant Wednesday.
It was unclear whether any of the three had attorneys.
Goff, 23, worked at the prison from September 2006 until this month. Authorities suspect Goff developed ''an inappropriate relationship’’ with Ford while she was employed there, prison spokesman Dale Call told The Wichita Eagle.
''There was obviously a relationship that existed prior to the escape,’' prison spokesman Bill Miskell said Wednesday, declining to be more specific. An investigation so far has found no wrongdoing by current prison employees, he added.
Goff left her two sons, ages 7 and 5, with her sister before going on what she said was a dinner date Sunday night, family members said.
A vehicle traced to Goff that was found 15 miles away contained items linked to the escape, prison officials said.
Goff’s mother, Laurie Ann Nutter, said in a telephone interview Wednesday morning that she was relieved her daughter was found alive and apparently unharmed.
''I think I might sleep tonight,’' Nutter said. ''It is just unbelievable. I think I have been holding my breath for three days.’'
Nutter on Tuesday said Goff often mentioned Ford and that she had even warned her gullible daughter not to let him sweet-talk her.
Ford is serving a sentence from Wyandotte County for robbery and indecent liberties. Bell is serving sentences from Finney, Leavenworth and Cowley counties for forgery, burglary, battery and escape.