Driver in I-25 pursuit crashed into deputy's car

A man who led authorities on a 40-mile pursuit on northbound Interstate 25 had his ex-girlfriend and her 13-year-old daughter in a stolen Mazda when the car slammed into a Douglas County sheriff’s car near Castle Rock, authorities said.

The crash happened about 12:30 p.m. in a construction zone near mile marker 181. Speeds during the chase reached 120 mph, authorities said.

The driver, 22-year-old Jacob Huerta, got out and ran but stopped when a Castle Rock police officer ordered him down at gunpoint, said Castle Rock Police Chief Tony Lane.

“That was the smartest thing he did all day,” he said.

Huerta, the sheriff’s deputy and the two passengers in the stolen car were taken to a hospital, though their injuries were not believed to be serious, Lane said. Huerta faces a range of felony charges, including first-degree assault on a police officer and kidnapping.  He will likely be booked into Douglas County jail after he is treated.

The chase began about 11:35 a.m. when officers responded to a call that a man pulled a woman by her hair into a Mazda car on the 600 block of Skyline Avenue, police said. Investigators have not said if the woman and her daughter were forced into the car.

Officers pursued the car onto Interstate 25 but eventually ended the chase, which was picked up by the Colorado State Patrol and Castle Rock police.

Huerta was arrested in a domestic violence dispute and pleaded guilty to assault in 2005 and twice in 2006.