Body camera shows an intense struggle in Tooele with ‘Proud Boys’ fugitive
By: On April 23, according to court and jail documents, police were looking for 37-year-old fugitive Amber Pyne on an active warrant for her arrest.
When they pulled up to a home on Haylie Lane, officers said she went inside, as did another man.
Documents stated as officers searched for Pyne in the house, they spotted a man, later identified as 33-year-old Gordon Wesley Cronk, exiting a basement door. Cronk, officers wrote, told them he didn’t see Pyne when he was in the basement.
According to a probable cause statement, officers subsequently located Pyne “hidden under several boxes and random household possessions” that had been stacked on top of her.
Body camera footage documented the moment when an officer told Cronk, already in another officer’s immediate custody, that he was being placed under arrest for obstruction.
“Why?” Cronk could be heard asking in the video.
“Because you were aiding and abetting a fugitive,” the officer said.
In roughly 2 seconds, the video showed the exchange turn into an all-out struggle.
Court documents stated that Cronk grabbed onto one officer’s rifle by the handle and then later grabbed the same officer’s holstered handgun during the struggle. It lasted approximately 40 seconds, and resulted in Cronk being tazed twice.
“Knock it off!” one officer could be heard instructing Cronk after the struggle ended. “Sit down for a second!”
According to documents, Cronk refused to tell officers his name or provide any ID. He was eventually identified via a fingerprint scanner that revealed he was wanted on two NCIC warrants, including one with nationwide extradition.
“When we started to do some more research, it does look like he’s a member of the ‘Proud Boys’ organization,” Bentley said. “(He) wasn’t even on our radar. We had no idea who he was, that there were warrants—nothing. We weren’t aware of him whatsoever.”
Documents stated that a witness told police Cronk was Pyne’s boyfriend.
Pyne was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor failure to stop at the command of law enforcement related to the April 23 incident. Documents showed that a warrant for her arrest was issued on April 16 for failing to comply with the terms of her probation in a 2021 case in which she pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony charge related to drug distribution.
Cronk was subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree felony disarming of a police officer of a firearm, two counts of third-degree felony assault by a prisoner, and one count of third-degree felony obstructing service of a board of pardons’ warrant or a probationer order to show cause.
His next court appearance was a scheduling conference on May 14, court records showed.