A Texas driver accused of fleeing an El Paso County sheriff’s deputy discovered that an Audi Q7 can only keep an escape attempt going for as long as there is road underneath it. Authorities say 25-year-old Christian Esparza was arrested after losing control of the SUV and driving into the desert.
The incident began around 2:59 a.m. on September 5 in Far East El Paso. According to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, a deputy spotted a blue Audi Q7 traveling eastbound at a high rate of speed in the 14900 block of Montana Avenue.
The deputy attempted to conduct a traffic stop, but the sheriff’s office says Esparza failed to stop and continued driving east. His attempt to keep going eventually came to an abrupt end when authorities say he lost control of the Audi and left the roadway.
The SUV entered the desert and sustained damage to its front bumper, effectively bringing the escape attempt to an end. Esparza was then taken into custody without further incident, and authorities said no injuries were reported.
That Was a Weird Stop
Please give the following Facebook reel a moment to load.
The first thirty seconds of the clip are silent, but then you can hear the deputy Oscar Ugarte ask Christian Esparza to step out of the vehicle. He then took so long that the deputy felt the need to approach the vehicle to see what was going on.
Eventually, Esparza gets out, clutching a paper in his right hand. Fortunately, he complied with the deputy and placed his hands on the vehicle so that he could be handcuffed, but that was only the beginning of his weird behavior.
When Deputy Ugarte asked him why he didn’t stop his car after seeing the emergency lights go off, Esparza said, “It’s because I swerved. Yeah, I should have kept going.” Because of what little sense that response made, the deputy asked him the same question: “Why didn’t you stop?”
Unsurprisingly, Esparza said, “The rush, I guess. I need to feel something. It’s just boring.” He then confesses that he should have kept going to lengthen the chase because it “would have been fun.”
Sheriff Says Fleeing Can Turn a Traffic Violation Into Something Deadly
Esparza was charged with evading arrest or detention with a vehicle following the incident. His bond was set at $5,000, according to the sheriff’s office.
We searched for his name in the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office inmate search, but additional information was not made available.
Sheriff Oscar Ugarte used the arrest to warn other drivers about how quickly fleeing a traffic stop can create a far more dangerous situation. “Evading law enforcement is dangerous and can quickly turn a traffic violation into a potentially deadly situation,” Ugarte said.
The sheriff urged motorists who see emergency lights to slow down and safely pull over rather than attempting to escape. In Esparza’s case, authorities say nobody was injured, but his Audi’s front bumper was considerably less fortunate after the desert brought the pursuit to a stop.