Mineral County residents report an encounter with a Saltese shooting suspect

SALTESE – A search is underway for the man accused of shooting another man near Mangold’s Motel and General Store yesterday in Saltese.

Residents chased the suspect – Willie Joe Richardson, a black man wearing black sweatpants – as he drove through town.

“The chef said he only saw them stop him as he was getting out of the exit. They were covered in blood,” Tia Downing, a waitress at Montana Bar, told MTN.

Downing and her husband got off work in Saltese on Sunday evening. “We were overwhelmed. It’s Sunday night football,” she said.

Then they pulled up next to their colleague, a chef, who had just been in a car accident.

McKenzie Managhan

Downing explained: “All of a sudden this black car comes racing behind us on this street, turns the corner and tries to run us off the road.”

The driver of that car was Willie Joe Richardson, who the Mineral County Sheriff confirms shot and injured a man and rammed him into a vehicle.

Downing’s husband chased Richardson’s vehicle down the road and they blocked him from getting onto the highway. However, he had not been found as of Monday evening. “To be honest, I can’t imagine him coming back here after last night seeing how many people were chasing him,” Downing said.

The Mineral County Sheriff’s Office said the man who was shot was in stable condition as of Monday afternoon.