On Tuesday the Eighth, Palisade police found a woman shot in the chest and a crashed car at the Golden Gate gas station in Palisade. The police quickly identified the suspect’s car and gave chase until the vehicle was finally stopped near Delta Colorado.
Around 11:20 p.m., police responded to gunshots heard in the 200 block of West 3rd Street, by the liquor store and a few blocks north of Veterans’ Memorial Park. After arriving at the scene, police reportedly found the crash near the gas station, and nearby they found the woman who had been shot in the chest. The identity and condition of the woman are, as of now, not released to the public.
The police believed a carjacking had been the cause, and they quickly found the suspected vehicle, a silver Hyundai with an Ohio license plate on I-70 near the Clifton exit. They proceeded to chase the car onto the business loop and 32 Road. The vehicle then continued onto Highway 50 until they were caught in Delta County by road spikes set up by the police department there.
The perpetrator, Zachary Bayhan, is a 27-year-old who is currently being held at the Mesa County Detention Facility. He has been charged with eluding the police, reckless driving and endangerment, driving on the wrong side of a divided highway, multiple accounts of failing to obey traffic signals, and 9 counts of speeding 40 or more miles per hour over the speed limit. He exceeded speeds of 100 miles per hour several times as he tried to lose the police.
While it is not yet proved that Bayhan was the cause of the crash, carjacking, and shooting at the Golden Gate gas station, he is under investigation. If he was the cause of these, he could be seeing roughly 10-32 years in prison and multi-thousand fines just for the assault. Nonetheless, he will certainly face heavy fines and several years in prison, and hopefully, the woman shot will survive and live a long and healthy life.
