A multistate crime spree ended in Bolton Monday afternoon with a Colorado man being shot during a struggle with a state trooper.

“We don’t know exactly how the weapon discharged. It could’ve been the trooper. It could have been the suspect,” Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Warren Strain said.

James Friend, 29, 410 Belford Ave., Grand Junction, was in custody at the Hinds County Detention Center this morning after being treated at University of Mississippi Medical Center, hospital and law enforcement officials said.

He faces Hinds County charges of aggravated assault on a police officer, felony flight from a police officer and auto theft, Strain said.

Friend’s companion, Asten Yvonne Calton, 23, of Grand Junction, Colo., faces charges of auto theft. She was also at the detention center this morning.

According to Vicksburg police reports, Friend and Calton had just left Vicksburg in a car stolen at 1:10 p.m. from R&C Auto Sales on South Frontage Road.

Rick Richie, a salesman at the used car dealership, said he was suspicious when the couple drove onto the lot in a 1996 Dodge Ram 3500 flatbed utility truck with DS Weeds and Pest Control from Salina, Kan., on its side.

“I was leaving to get some food. They pulled in real fast and nearly hit me,” Richie said.

Another salesman, who was not available for comment, waited on the couple while Richie left the dealership.

When he returned, the couple had taken a teal 1995 Pontiac Firebird for a test-drive. The salesman did not get a copy of Friend’s driver’s license, Richie said.

They had told the salesmen that they were doing business in Jackson and came to Vicksburg to buy a car, Richie said.

“When they didn’t come back, I called the number on the truck,” Richie said. “They said they worked for the company, and I figured the company would know they’re down here,” he said.

The truck’s owner in Kansas told Richie the Dodge had been stolen Saturday and the two were suspected of stealing at least two other vehicles while trying to escape police in Kansas.

Richie then called 911.

Meanwhile, Bovina Texaco reported the Pontiac leaving the station without paying for gas.

About the same time, a trooper not identified by the highway patrol, noticed the car traveling on Interstate 20 had an improper license plate, Col. Marvin Curtis said.

The trooper tried to stop the car near Edwards, and instead was led on a high-speed pursuit to Bolton.

The pair was stopped on Bolton-Brownsville Road and got out of the car, but they three times ignored the trooper’s orders to lie down before Friend was shot in the lower right leg with a shotgun.

The trooper is on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, Strain said. This is standard procedure in any case where a suspect has been shot, Curtis said.

Richie said the dealership doesn’t keep much gas in the cars so that stealing them is more difficult.

Inside the truck left in Vicksburg, Richie found a flute. He called the phone number on the label and discovered the flute had been stolen from USA Pawn & Jewelry on Washington Street. A theft report has been filed with the Vicksburg Police Department, Capt. Mark Culbertson said.