DANA POINT – A man and woman were identified Wednesday as the Texas couple arrested following a pursuit that resulted in at least one gunshot fired and a search late Tuesday night.

Rene Joseph Bolduc, 41, and Teresa Nanette Kirkland, 46, both from Texas, were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and obstruction.

Bolduc and Kirkland were approached by California State Park rangers sometime around 9:25 p.m. Tuesday in a campground in the 25000 block of Dana Point Harbor Drive near Doheny State Beach, officials said.

“A state park ranger was doing a routine camp check in the campground when he found a vehicle that had not paid fees to camp,” said Rich Haydon, a state park superintendent. “So, the officer woke up a male and female in the red Ford Explorer.”

A pit bull was also in car at the time.

“The officer spoke to them about paying camp fees, and the occupants got a little uncooperative,” Haydon said.

Officials said when the couple began fidgeting in the car, the officer got concerned and asked both of them to keep their hands in plain view.

As the ranger was checking the names of the car’s occupants with a radio dispatcher, Bolduc started the car and drove off, Haydon said.

“(Boduc) drove forward to the back of the campsite to another camp site to escape. When he hit a fire ring, the vehicle flipped onto its side,” Haydon said.

After the crash, the ranger approached the vehicle with a weapon drawn for his safety when he heard two gunshots from the vehicle, causing him to retreat until backup from San Clemente State Beach and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department arrived.

“(Bolduc and Kirkland) shot out of the vehicle, not necessarily in the direction of the officer,,” said Mark Allen, a supervising state park peace officer.

Sheriff’s deputies established a perimeter around the area, with the help of California Highway Patrol on side streets, and began searching for the couple, who fled from the SUV after the ranger retreated.

Bolduc was found around 11 p.m. in the water by an officer near a jetty in the Dana Point Harbor, and Kirkland was found “hiding among lifeguard towers grouped in an area on the beach,” Allen said.

Officials had moved the lifeguard towers away from the water in anticipation of the upcoming winter storm, Haydon said.

Kirkland and Bolduc were taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies and hospitalized before being booked into Orange County jail.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7802 or aduranty@ocregister.com