On the afternoon of January 26, 2003, 44-year-old Deputy Sheriff David Charles Jones of the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office was killed while conducting a traffic stop south of Escalante, Utah. He had stopped a pickup for suspected impairment, placed the driver in handcuffs and secured him in the back of the patrol vehicle, then radioed for a tow truck. A passenger from the pickup produced a rifle and, after Jones drew his service weapon and ordered the man to drop it, the passenger fired a chest shot that penetrated the deputy’s vest. Deputy Jones returned fire and wounded the assailant before the passenger freed the handcuffed driver and the two fled.

A tow truck driver found Deputy Jones wounded and summoned help; Jones died at the scene before an ambulance arrived. Both suspects were captured within hours; one had been wounded in the gunfight. The rifle used was loaded with armor‑piercing ammunition. Deputy Jones had been with the Sheriff’s Office 16 months and was survived by his wife and five children.

Did anyone in the Escalante area witness the stop or the suspects’ escape?