McKinley County Sheriff Office Investigator Anthony Ashley is seeking the public’s help in identifying a man seen with Sergio Perez-Prieto just days before his body was discovered north of Hassler Valley Road, not far from ATV Motocross road July 9.

Investigators determined that Perez-Prieto was the victim of foul play.

Video surveillance shows Perez-Prieto withdrawing money from a Wells Fargo ATM machine July 4. Ashley said investigators want to talk with the unidentified passenger, seen in the photo donning a thick black leather bracelet, black clothing, and long hair.

“He’s a murder suspect,” MCSO Investigator Merle Bates said.

Perez-Prieto was reported missing by family...

Man pistol-whipped, beat female victim

***A man facing attempted murder charges is wanted by McKinley County Sheriff’s Office.

MCSO Inv. Anthony Ashley said that on the evening of July 27, Anthony Hicks of Allentown, Ariz., allegedly assaulted a woman from the east Gallup area.

MCSO Deputy Jasmine Jaramillo interviewed the reported victim and wrote out the sensitive details of the assault. The victim who was a passenger in Hicks’ vehicle told the deputy that Hicks, 47, took her “on the back road” near Dusty Road in Gallup. From there, he headed up a steep hill and “began hitting her [on] the face several times with a closed fist.”

When the victim bolted from the vehicle...

The legal limit is .08

Aaron Ben

July 23, 12:31 am

DWI

McKinley County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Gabrielle Puhuyesva was advised that a grey pickup had crashed in front of T and R Market, 671 U.S. 491. The driver, who was intoxicated, was trying to move the vehicle.

Ben, 21, failed field sobriety tests and blew .16 and .17 during breath testing.

Dominic Garcia

July 21, 8:02 pm

3rd DWI, Aggravated

MCSO Deputy Johnson Lee was dispatched to the White Cliffs area in reference to an RV on fire next to X-Treme Rescue and Towing, 425 Hassler Valley Road. While Lee was blocking traffic, Garcia, 34, jumped out of the driver’s seat of a gray truck. He was yelling and...

PEEING IN PUBLIC

7/29, GALLUP

Westbound on Wilson Avenue near Andy’s Trading Company, 612 Wilson Ave., while attempting to find suspects involved in a fight at the Third Street Tavern, Gallup Police Department Officer Ryan Blackgoat noticed a bystander waving. Blackgoat pulled over and noticed that the bystander, who smelled strongly of alcohol, was peeing.

When Blackgoat asked Leroy Bitsie, 33, to sit in his police unit, Bitsie refused and “stood there still in a[n] aggressive fighting stance at me.”

When Bitsie continued to refuse, the officer pushed his back to get him inside the vehicle, but Bitsie was aggressive and Blackgoat deployed his spray. Bitsie resisted...