A man was arrested in Superior on Thursday night after Erie police ordered a shelter-in-place that morning while searching for him after a hit-and-run on Longmont’s Main Street early Thursday morning.
Boulder County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Alberto Jouvon Dias, 30, late Thursday night in Superior on charges of second-degree assault, failure to remain at the scene of an accident resulting in injury, reckless driving and vehicular eluding, according to an arrest affidavit. Dias was arrested after Erie police failed to find him in a search that prompted a shelter-in-place order for a neighborhood Thursday morning.
Dias reportedly pulled out of a parking spot and hit a man around 2:30 a.m. Thursday on Main Street in Longmont, before driving away and eluding Longmont police by blowing through a stop sign and driving recklessly, the affidavit states.
The man who was hit told police that Dias came into a bar on Main Street and got into an argument with some people. When the man and his friends were getting ready to leave, they were worried Dias was going to follow a woman in her car, so another man tried to distract Dias while she drove away, the affidavit states.
The man was standing next to the woman’s car while she drove away, when Dias reportedly peeled out of the parking spot to follow her, hitting the man with his car in the process. The man went up on the hood of the car and rolled off, cutting his hand, according to the affidavit.
Police found both the vehicle Dias was driving and the vehicle the woman was driving, and pulled her over, but Dias kept driving, the affidavit states. Dias reportedly was driving fast and blew through a stop sign at East Ken Pratt Boulevard and Great Western Drive, and police stopped pursuing him because he was driving too recklessly.
About four hours later, Erie police, on the request of Longmont police, attempted to apprehend Dias in a neighborhood in southeast Erie, and police ordered a shelter-in-place for the area around 6:40 a.m.
Residents living around Eagle View Place and Vale Way in Erie were ordered to shelter in place from about 6:40 a.m. to 7:06 a.m while police searched for Dias. Police had lifted the order that morning because the person of interest was likely no longer in the area, according to Erie Police Department spokesperson Amber Luttrell.
The shelter-in-place order, which included parts of Hickory Place and the Right Start Preschool, was given because Erie police wanted to be cautious, as they knew Dias was accused of using his vehicle as a weapon, Luttrell said. The police action happened around the time people are getting ready for work and children are walking to school, so more caution was warranted, Luttrell said.
The order also let the community know what police were doing while they were doing it, Luttrell said.
As of 4 p.m. Thursday, police had stopped actively searching for Dias, according to Longmont spokesperson Robin Ericson.
Late Thursday night, Dias was booked and remains in custody at the Boulder County Jail on $5,000 bail, according to online court records. He was scheduled for a hearing on advisement in Boulder County Jail court on Friday.