Little Water in shock, pays tribute to fallen officer

By Alastair Lee Bitsoi and Cindy Yurth
Navajo Times

COVE/RED VALLEY, Ariz.

Five blinking police lights left the base of the Chuska Mountains Friday afternoon, in an informal procession for fallen Navajo Nation Police Officer Alex Yazzie.

At about 12:50 p.m. on Friday, Navajo Nation Police and Apache County Sheriff Deputies left the crime scene where Yazzie was shot and killed by gunman Justin Fowler, 24, of Little Water, N.M., Thursday night.

The procession and the ongoing investigation of the shoot-out, which included a high-speed chase involving more than 20 police vehicles, had closed Buffalo Pass for much of the day. A Navajo Nation police officer, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the pass would be closed for about two more hours.

According to Rick Abasta, spokesman for Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, Yazzie was killed during a confrontation with the armed Fowler, who also injured two more officers. Officer Yazzie was killed on the scene, while Officers Herbert Frazier and James Hale each took a bullet to the leg.

Hale, who was transported to the University of New Mexico hospital in Albuquerque, had part of his leg amputated, while Frazier was taken to the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock.
Abasta and Chief of Staff Deswood Tome sent out notification to media Friday afternoon that stated Jordon Fowler, the suspect’s brother, called Shiprock Police Department at 2:15 p.m. Thursday and reported his brother, Justin, was beating his wife, Rayana Ramone, and mother, Cecelia Begay, with a pistol.

“The police communications operation heard shots fired while on the phone with Jordon Fowler,” Tome said, noting that four police vehicles were damaged during the incident, two of them rendered non-operational.

More than 30 Navajo police officers responded from the first reported time at 2:15 p.m. from five police districts – Shiprock, Crownpoint, Window Rock, Chinle and Kayenta, Tome said.
The FBI is conducting the investigation with the Navajo Department of Criminal Investigation.

High-speed chase

Meanwhile, over in Littlewater, N.M., where the chase began before fatally ending in Cove/Red Valley at around 10 p.m. last night, the manager of the Red Mesa Convenience Store first heard the sound of gunshots at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon.

The store manager, who refused to give her name for fear of retaliation, said that Fowler was a regular customer and that she remembers him being parked at the gas station before blazing off to where she later heard gunshots.

The location of the gunshots, she said, was south of the store, on the frontage road that runs parallel to U.S. Highway 491. It’s about 200 yards from the store, according to both Abasta and Tome’s report.

“I heard the gunshot but didn’t think anything of it,” said the store manager, who was on her seventh day at her new location. “I just got into my vehicle, brushed my shoulder, got onto ‘491 and saw vehicles at the end of frontage road.”

Once the store manager got on the road, she received phone calls from her employees stating that the law enforcement needed to speak with her to close the store and set up a command center. At this point, which was 2:49 p.m., the store manager learned that the gunshots she heard were something serious.

By 3:20 p.m. more than 20 police panels had located to the store.

“I was frightened but couldn’t show (it),” she said, noting that the fact that Fowler demanded the presence of over 20 police vehicles and officers meant he wasn’t scared.
At approximately 6:30 p.m. she closed the store, with most employees including her leaving by 6:50 p.m.

Thereafter, the store served as a command center for the police officers. The store manager remembers Fowler as being an innocent-seeming person.

At Tse Alnaozt’ii Chapter

Over at Tse Alnaozt’ii Chapter, which is about 11 miles west of Little Water, Tiffany Harvey saw police units driving up the Chuskas at about 4:30 p.m.

“There were a lot of cop vehicles and sirens going toward the mountain,” she said. “They were up there for a while.”

According to Harvey, the police force retreated down the mountain between 10 and 11 p.m., which is around when both Fowler and Yazzie were killed.

“I just thought it was crazy,” Harvey added. “I never thought such a thing would happen, especially the guy. My siblings went to school with him.”

Gerald Henderson, president for Tse Alnaozt’ii Chapter ALERT, said Friday that most of the communities of Little Water and Tse Alnaozt’ii, or Sanostee, are in shock.

“Our community was covered with police,” Henderson said.

Tom Riggenbach of the outdoor adventure group YES for Diné Bikéyah was in his teacherage in Red Valley Thursday evening packing gear for a group he was taking to the Bataan Memorial Death March in White Sands, N.M. when he heard the sirens. Looking outside, he saw a string of police cars headed up Navajo Route 13 toward the Chuskas.

“We counted 18,” he said. “At first I thought it was an accident, so I started to grab my (EMS) bag. But it was all cops. It was just weird.”

One at a time, three ambulances went by, Riggenbach said. Later, one came down with a police escort. By that time, he said, Route 13 had been barricaded just north of the housing, and rumors were starting to filter in that it was a police chase.

“I decided not to go out there,” he said.

About 10 p.m., Riggenbach noticed “lights all over the mountain, like they were looking for something on foot.”

While Yazzie’s informal procession passed through Shiprock Friday, Samantha Charley, of Cudei, N.M., placed a bouquet of flowers by a Navajo Nation flagpole in honor of the fallen officer. Along with the Navajo Nation Flag, the American and New Mexico flag were flown at half-staff.

“I was just here laying out flowers for my condolences and prayers to the family,” Charley said. “I just heard about the tragedy that happened. It’s very sad.”

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