Two Los Lunas men have been arrested after a vehicle and foot pursuit by New Mexico State Police officers last week.

Alonso Bojorquez, 29, and Manuel Saenz-Cardona, 36, were booked into the Valencia County Detention Center on outstanding misdemeanor warrants on Wednesday, July 27.

Manuel Saenz-Cardona

Alonso Bojorquez

Saenz faces at least three additional felony charges of receiving/transferring a stolen vehicle, aggravated fleeing and felon in possession of a firearm, and Bojorquez was charged with resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor.

The incident began when a state police officer, who was on the lookout for a person of interest in the Fourth of July shooting death of Amanda Sullivan in Tomé, spotted a man and car he believed matched the descriptions of the suspect in the case and vehicle provided by local law enforcement.

The officer was watching the man and car at a home on Mountain View Road, in Monterey Park on the east side of Valencia County, when Bojorquez ran from the house. The officer chased him on foot, but Saenz-Cardona fled from the same house in a white F250 Ford pickup. Bojorquez jumped into the passenger seat of the pickup, according to a recent press release from NMSP.

State police officers began chasing the truck, assisted by deputies from the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office and officers from the Los Lunas Police Department.

The truck crashed through a fence on the 3400 block of N.M. 47, north of Viasa Road, which is north of the Valencia Y.

Bojorquez was taken into custody immediately, while Saenz-Cardona fled on foot and was later found hiding in a nearby chicken coop. Officers found out the F250 had been reported stolen.

After NMSP identified both suspects, it was determined that neither as connected to the original homicide case which prompted the surveillance on Mountain View Road.

Saenz-Cardona and Bojorquez were both treated for minor injuries after the crash at a local hospital following the pursuit and were booked into the Valencia County Detention Center. Both were released on their own recognizance by Belen Magistrate John Chavez on July 28.

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Julia M. Dendinger began working at the VCNB in 2006. She covers Valencia County government, Belen Consolidated Schools and the village of Bosque Farms. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists Rio Grande chapter’s board of directors.