2 women held in jail after shooting at tow yard, chase, crash near Stuart
Jade Rondon accused of firing shots; Valerie Valdes faces reckless driving charges.
STUART, Fla. —
Two Miami women are being held in the Martin County Jail after a shooting at a tow yard near Stuart led to a police chase and a violent crash.
Jade Rondon, 23, is facing two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, discharging a firearm in public, aggravated fleeing and eluding, driving while license suspended, felony criminal mischief.
During her first appearance Saturday, a judge ordered her held on $211,000 bond.
Valerie Valdes, 22, is being detained on $25,000 bond for operating an unregistered motor vehicle and four counts of reckless driving with injuries.
Their mugshots are not available on the jail system.
Sheriff John Budensiek said more charges are possible as investigators are working to obtain search warrants for the suspects’ cars and phones.
The incident began around 1 p.m. when the two women arrived at Gary’s Towing and Recovery, 4405 SE Cove Road, near Stuart, to retrieve a car that had been towed earlier that morning.
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Scene of shooting.
Two other people then showed up to claim the same vehicle.
“They got into some type of argument about the belongings in the car, which, by the way, the only thing in the car really was a couple of guns,” Budensiek said.
One of the original women then grabbed a gun and began shooting, the sheriff said.
Bullets struck trailers in the yard, but no one was injured.
All four individuals involved had fled when deputies arrived.
The accused shooter had taken the car they were disputing, but deputies located her shortly later on Cove Road near U.S. 1, Budensiek said.
She attempted to flee but was quickly arrested.
Valdes was taken into custody after causing a violent collision on U.S. 1 while trying to escape.
“Why she was driving at a high rate of speed, why she was weaving out of traffic, we’re not sure. We weren’t chasing her. We didn’t even know for sure that that car was involved at that time,” Budensiek said.
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