Man with warrants arrested after being found asleep at a gas pump

A man with arrest warrants out of Maricopa County was found passed out in the back of a van by the gas pump of a Safford gas station.

Police responded Friday morning to reports of a driver and his passenger passed out in a van by the gas pump. The responding officer woke the passenger who said they were waiting for a friend. The passenger reportedly would not make eye contact with the officer and could not maintain a conversation.

The officer woke the driver who initially said they were waiting for the driver but later recanted and said they were not waiting for anybody else, and that they were just taking a nap. The driver reportedly could not keep from nodding off during the conversation. When asked if there was anybody else in the van, the driver said, “no,” and gave permission for the officer to check the back of the van.

When the officer opened the back of the van he found a man lying on the floor next to a large cooler. The man identified himself as Jason Barker. The officer asked Barker to come out of the van while he ran a background check. The officer was advised that Barker had arrest warrants out of Maricopa County. The warrants indicated that Barker had violent tendencies.

When the officer notified Barker that he was detaining him, Barker admitted that he had some syringes in his sweater pocket. Barker claimed that he had found the syringes in his house in Phoenix and was going to get rid of them. When questioned how they made it all the way to Safford with him, he said he didn’t know what to do with them.

Barker was booked into Graham County jail on the outstanding warrants. The liquid in the syringes tested positive for heroin.

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