Suspect arrested in connection with eluding incident

City police arrested a Mountain Home man Monday afternoon after he fled from authorities, who ended up having to crawl beneath a local business to reach and apprehend him.

Luis Nolasco, 26, was taken into custody after police responded to the Desert Manor Apartment Complex around 5 p.m. that afternoon.

Police received reports that Nolasco was in the area in violation of a no-contact order. Dispatcher advised police officers that Nolasco had an active felony warrant in the amount of $750,000 on charges of attempted strangulation and domestic battery in the presence of a child.

Officers conducted a search in the area, where they located a vehicle matching the description provided by dispatchers. The car drove off as officers went to make a traffic stop.

Officers then followed the car to the parking lot of Freedom Lanes, where it had stopped. As they approached the vehicle, they discovered it had a passenger but no driver. The passenger then identified the driver as Nolasco.

In cooperation with the Elmore County Sheriff's Office and the Idaho State Police, officers set up a perimeter in the area around the bowling alley. During the search, a subject matching Nolasco's description was located hiding under the deck of the Lone River Production business at 135 Bitterbrush Court.

Nolasco was given several verbal commands to come out, but refused to obey as he continued to crawl away. The Mountain Home extrication team arrived on scene to help authorities remove areas of the deck so they could apprehend him.

The suspect eventually crawled into a crawl space which the officers couldn't reach. Officers tried on several more occasions to get him to come out, and he continued to refuse. Eventually, officers crawled to his location where he was arrested and removed from the area.

In addition to the existing charges in the original arrest warrant, additional charges are pending by the Elmore County Prosecutors' Office.

Although the public was not in any danger, officers will always err on the side of caution to protect the public, said Officer Melanie Broughton, a police department spokesperson. Therefore, the apartment complex above the business was evacuated, and a nearby daycare center was locked down.

"We owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to all agencies involved in the safe apprehension of the suspect," said city police Nick Schilz. "We are thankful that no officers, including Mr. Nolasco, were seriously injured as a result of his actions, which could have easily ended differently. "