Tip brings guns-drawn arrest of sleeping car-theft suspects

Thanks to a passing motorist’s tip, an SUV stolen in Redmond on Monday was found parked near Highway 97 north of Bend Tuesday morning with two people sleeping inside, and Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies arrested the pair in a high-risk, guns-drawn encounter.

Shortly before 11 a.m., deputies were dispatched to a reported suspicious vehicle in the area of Highway 97 near Suzanne Lane, off Bowery Lane, Sgt. William Bailey said. A passing motorist reported a pearl-colored Cadillac Escalade parked off the side of the road.

Deputies and DCSO Street Crimes Unit detectives went to the scene and learned by checking its license plate that it was stolen the previous day in Redmond, Bailey said. Two people were seen sleeping inside.

Deputies performed a high-risk (guns drawn) contact with the pair and ordered them out of the vehicle, one at a time, Bailey said. Shawn Ison, 21, of Crooked River Ranch, and Autumn Blundell, 18, of Redmond, complied with the commands and were taken into custody.

Both were booked into the county jail on one count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. They were held on $10,000 bail.

“We would like to thank the observant community member that reported the suspicious vehicle to non-emergency dispatch,” the sergeant said in a news release. “Timely reporting of suspicious activity to law enforcement gives us the best possible chance of arriving quickly and catching criminal activity as it’s happening.”

Ison was in the news in June 2017, when he eluded deputies in Deschutes River Woods south of Bend, prompting an extensive search. He later was found hiding in a Terrebonne neighborhood and captured after a brief chase on foot, deputies said.

Ison pleaded guilty to five of 10 counts filed against him, including fleeing or attempting to elude police, two counts of recklessly endangering another person and second-degree counts of criminal mischief and criminal trespass. He was sentenced in July to 10 days in jail, two years probation and a one-year driver’s license suspension, court records show.

After a similar incident the previous month, Ison also received a 20-day jail term and similar probation last year, in another case of fleeing or attempting to elude police and recklessly endangering another person.