Late night car theft calls rarely end quietly, and this one out of El Paso County, Colorado is no exception. What started as a routine patrol check turned into a ramming incident, a short pursuit, and a lengthy list of felony charges for the driver involved.
According to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, deputies spotted an occupied stolen vehicle just before midnight on July 23 near the 600 block of Peterson Road in the Cimarron Hills area. Rather than pulling over when deputies tried to box her in, the suspect had other plans.
The driver, identified as 26-year-old Zhane Molina, allegedly rammed one of the patrol vehicles head-on, leaving both cars with damage. From there, she took off, prompting deputies to give chase. That pursuit didn’t last long though, as officers made the call to back off once it became clear the chase was putting other drivers at risk.
Smart move, honestly. A stolen car and an already agitated driver is not a combination you want playing out at high speed through residential streets. Deputies instead regrouped and tracked Molina down a short time later at a separate location, where she was taken into custody without further incident.
What Molina Is Facing
The charge sheet here is not short. Molina was booked into the El Paso County Jail on First-Degree Kidnapping, Second-Degree Assault, Vehicular Eluding, Second-Degree Motor Vehicle Theft, Reckless Endangerment, and several traffic violations. That kidnapping charge in particular suggests there is more to this story than just a stolen car, though the Sheriff’s Office release did not detail the circumstances behind it.
She’s currently being held on a $50,400 bond under conditions set by the State of Colorado.
A Sheriff’s Office Praising Its Own
Sheriff Joseph Roybal didn’t hold back in crediting his deputies for how the situation played out. He noted that his team works around the clock patrolling neighborhoods and coordinating efforts to catch offenders, adding that despite Molina’s attempts to get away, deputies stayed locked in until she was found and arrested.
It’s the kind of statement you’d expect after a case like this, and it’s hard to argue with the results. Nobody was seriously hurt, the suspect is in custody, and a stolen vehicle is off the road.
Our Take
Ramming a marked patrol vehicle is about as bold a decision as it gets, and it rarely works out the way the driver hopes. What stands out here is the restraint shown by deputies in ending the pursuit once it got risky, then using good old-fashioned patience to find Molina anyway.
No high-speed chase down the interstate, no headline about a bystander getting hurt. Just a level-headed approach that still ended in an arrest. If more departments handled fleeing suspects this way, we’d probably see a lot fewer of these stories end in tragedy.