Suspect in trooper shooting arrested in Sparks

SPARKS, Nev. - The suspect in the shooting of a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper was arrested at a home here Friday after officers traced him through telephone numbers left on his pager.

The arrest of Jorge Trujillo, 29, culminated a manhunt that began when Trooper Scott Swain was shot in the ankle while making a traffic stop Wednesday night in Reno.

Reno Police Lt. Steve Pitts said officers were in possession of Trujillo's pager and early Friday got a search warrant to obtain subscriber information for numbers left on it.

The pager was recovered from one of two dwellings police searched on Thursday, Pitts said.

Six phone numbers on the pager were tracked to addresses in Reno and Sparks. Officers with the Nevada Division of Investigation, who were working police in coordinating the investigating, were sent to those homes to see if anyone knew Trujillo or his whereabouts.

Pitts said NDI investigators Jerry Heinrich and Dan Woomer went to a home at 312 K Street in Sparks around 1:15 p.m. A man there said Trujillo was asleep in a bedroom.

Pitts said Trujillo at first was verbally uncooperative, but the officers persuaded him to surrender and he was arrested without incident.

Trujillo faces attempted murder and possible other charges.

Swain, a 14-year NHP veteran, was riding a Highway Patrol motorcycle when he stopped a red Nissan Pulsar near the corner of Sixth Street and Evans.

He was getting off the motorcycle when Trujillo allegedly jumped out of the car and opened fire, striking the trooper in the lower leg.

Witnesses said the suspect drove off as the officer radioed for help.

The shooting is the first of an NHP trooper on duty in northern Nevada since Carlos Borland was killed during a traffic stop on Interstate 80 near Lovelock in 1993.

Michael Sonner, a North Carolina jail escapee, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in that case. He remains on death row in Ely State Prison.

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