WOUNDED ... Dep. Harry Williams SUSPECTED ... Ignacio Garcia RELATED STORY: Four may have been involved in shooting Advertisement

A Nye County Sheriff's deputy was shot in the leg Sunday night when he got into a firefight with a man he pulled over for having fictitious license plates on his pickup.

At approximately 10 minutes past 10 p.m. Sunday, Dep. Harry Williams, a seven-year veteran with the Sheriff's Office assigned to the street-crimes unit, made a vehicle stop at the intersection of Center and Fourth streets, near the Pahrump Community Library.

Williams had been cruising the area, on the lookout for suspicious persons or possible signs of burglaries in progress at local businesses. He noticed a Chevrolet (or GMC) pickup truck and called in the license plate number for a vehicle check; it turned out the plates didn't belong to the truck.

The truck was occupied by two people, possibly three. When Williams got out of his vehicle to approach the driver, according to Capt. Bill Becht of the office's southern command, "He got the heebiejeebies," knowing something was wrong.

The driver, believed to be Ignacio Baltazar Garcia, a frequent inmate at the Nye County Detention Facility, leaned out and shot at Williams with a .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol.

The rapid popping sound of the five fired shots could be heard four blocks away, followed shortly by multiple sirens in the distance.

One of the rounds struck Deputy Williams in the lower left leg. Williams retreated behind the truck and returned fire before the driver pulled away.

Williams suffered a clean wound through the fleshy part of his leg with no bone fractures or bullet fragments left behind. Deputy James Chandler, also of the street-crimes unit, was the first to respond, administering first aid to Williams prior to the arrival of Pahrump Fire-Rescue medics.

Williams was expected to be released Tuesday with no permanent disabilities.

The pickup truck was soon located, abandoned by the suspects but with the handgun left inside, on Big Five Road off Highway 372 near the hospital.

The suspects fled on foot and remain at large in the Pahrump area.

About 30 other deputies responded to the scene and joined in the hunt for the escaped suspects, said Sheriff Tony DeMeo. Nevada Highway Patrol troopers lent their assistance, and Las Vegas Metro helicopter to join in the search.

Sheriff's Office K-9 units tracked the suspects through residential neighborhoods and into the desert for two miles before the dogs lost their scent. Two square miles were cordoned off to contain the fugitives.

DeMeo said he arrived at the scene within 15 minutes. The whole manhunt "went textbook," he said, although in the end the officers came up empty-handed.

DeMeo said both suspects "have a colorful history with the Nye County Sheriff's Office." He added, "They are considered armed and dangerous ... We know the people we're dealing with. We have information."

If seen, residents should call 911 and report their whereabouts, DeMeo said.

Becht said the suspects had led the deputy on a stop-and-go chase for some time before finally pulling over to the side of the road. They "set him up" for the ambush shooting, Becht said.

"I'm taking this very seriously and so is my agency," said DeMeo in a Monday afternoon press conference. "We believe these people are highly dangerous, and we're going to treat them as such."

Regarding the failure to catch the fugitives, DeMeo said, "We put our best resources forward in order to bring a resolution to this situation. This is a big area with no lighting at all. It's desert out there."

Reflecting on what is the first potentially deadly assault on a police officer in recent memory in Nye County, DeMeo said, "When you assault a police officer, you assault the community."

He also expressed confidence about the apprehension of the suspects in due course. "Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time we get them into custody," he said. "We have a very good track record here ... These people will be apprehended."

DeMeo called on the suspects to surrender. "We'll take them into custody and they'll go through the system," he said. "Our job is to win, and we're going to win. We're going to make our people win."

Asked how he personally felt about the assault on one of his officers, DeMeo became obviously emotional.

"I got sick to my stomach," he said suddenly. "At first you go through denial." DeMeo expressed dismay that someone had "perpetrated a violent crime against one of my people."

DeMeo had nothing but praise for Williams. "The deputy did the right thing with his training ... He fired back. That's his job; he fired back with aggression. That was his training."