Felon charged with vehicular assault

MOSES LAKE — A convicted felon who allegedly led police on a high-speed chase and crashed his vehicle in December is facing several charges in connection with the incident.

Grant County prosecutors charged Nicholas Romero-Rivera, 29, of Moses Lake, in Grant County Superior Court with vehicular assault, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and attempting to elude-endangerment by eluding a police vehicle.

On Dec. 16 a deputy with the Grant County Sheriff's Office reportedly spotted a dark blue BMW, which had been involved in a previous eluding incident, in the Moses Lake area. The vehicle reportedly took off heading north on Stratford Road Northeast from Harris Road Northeast and the driver blacked out the vehicle's lights when the deputy attempted to pull the vehicle over.

A short time later a Moses Lake police officer located the vehicle heading south on Road M Northeast toward Road 7 Northeast. The officer used his spotlight to illuminate the inside of the BMW, but the driver, believed to be Romero-Rivera, rolled through a stop sign and turned west onto Road 7 Northeast.

The BMW “immediately accelerated” and reached speeds in excess of 90 mph. Romero-Rivera, a convicted felon, was being sought by police in connection with another December incident in which he was contacted during a traffic stop in Moses Lake and fled from officers after hitting his passenger and an officer with his car.

The MLPD officer who spotted the BMW on Dec. 16 determined that Romero-Rivera had acted with “extreme recklessness” during his previous run-in with police and he decided to continue pursuing the vehicle. As the BMW approached Road K Northeast, Romero-Rivera allegedly slowed down, turned south on Road K and blacked out the lights on the car again. Officers and deputies continued chasing the BMW, which reportedly reached speeds between 100 and110 mph.

Romero-Rivera allegedly later drove off of Road N Northeast, south of Wheeler Road. The BMW reportedly rolled multiple times before it came to a stop. Both Romero-Rivera and his female passenger were trapped in the car and emergency services had to be contacted to extract them from the vehicle.

As police were waiting for emergency responders, they reportedly spotted a pistol, which had a bullet in the chamber but no magazine, in the vehicle. A short-barreled shotgun was also reportedly located on the ground near the vehicle. Police found several other items, including a glass smoking device, a scale and shotgun shells, inside and outside of the crashed BMW. In addition, a blue plastic container was recovered, which allegedly contained two bags of methamphetamine weighing 0.9 grams and 6.1 grams. All of the items were secured by police and Romero-Rivera and his passenger were extracted from the car.

Romero-Rivera was transported to Samaritan Hospital for treatment, where a sample of his blood was taken. His female passenger was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center for treatment of a massive head injury. On Jan. 4 the female passenger showed police a text message from Romero-Rivera in which he allegedly said he was driving the car and told her that he would rather die than let police arrest him and take him to prison. He was arrested and charged in the incident.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.