Escaped murderers caught in Wyoming

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — Two convicted murderers who escaped from the Daggett County Jail a week ago were apprehended in southwestern Wyoming Saturday night with the help of a retired Salt Lake City police officer who authorities today called a hero.

Escapee Danny Martin Gallegos, 49, was shot during the recapture after the Wyoming Highway Patrol spiked the tires of a reportedly stolen vehicle he and Juan Diaz-Arevalo, 27, were riding in on I-80 between Green River and Rock Springs, said Sweetwater County sheriff's detective Dick Blust.

On Saturday night, the two men broke into the summer home of a 79-year-old man near the Utah-Wyoming border.

"They put a knife to his back and bound him with duct tape. They bound his hands together, bound his legs together," Blust said. "They stole the keys to his '98 Explorer and took off."

Inside the Explorer were three guns: A .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle, and a .38-caliber revolver.

The man, whom Utah corrections officials describe as a retired Salt Lake City police officer, was able to escape after working for about an hour to free himself. He left his home, flagged down a car on a nearby road and called 911.

Uinta County (Wyo.) dispatchers put out a description of the car, which was spotted about 9:38 p.m. by a Sweetwater County Sheriff's deputy outside a Pizza Hut in Green River.

"As officers closed in, it fled at speeds of over 100 miles per hour eastbound on I-80," Blust said.

Just outside Rock Springs, a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper positioned road spikes outside a freeway construction zone. The SUV went only a mile or two before stopping on the side of the road. Diaz-Arevalo, police said, jumped out carrying the .38 Special. Gallegos, armed with the rifle, jumped out of the passenger side.

"The men were ordered by officers to drop their weapons and freeze," Blust said. "They did neither. Gallegos turned with the rifle in his hands and was shot by one of our deputies. He dropped to the ground with the rifle beneath him."

Diaz-Arevalo ran off. Because there were homes nearby, police did not shoot him. He was caught a short time later and is currently in the Sweetwater County Detention Facility.

This afternoon, Utah Department of Corrections investigators met with him for about 45 minutes. Sweetwater County officials said Diaz has been uncooperative.

"Diaz has been 110 percent non-cooperative," Blust said. "He won't utter a word."