Two of the suspects involved in the fatal shooting of a Hatch police officer on Friday are fugitives from OH, the Las Cruces Sun-News has learned.
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The fallen officer is a two-year veteran of the Hatch Police Department.
“During the traffic stop, a passenger who was in that vehicle reportedly exited the vehicle and fired shots at the officer”, Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Kelly Jameson said.
Two people who were shot and wounded in a violent shooting spree in which a Hatch police officer was killed are being treated at University Medical Center in El Paso.
The suspect was arrested after the shooting.
Law enforcement officials said the suspects evaded police during a high-speed chase, then shot and wounded another individual in a carjacking attack at a rest stop further down the interstate around 25 minutes later.
A responding officer called in an officer down and began to chase the suspects in the Lexus on the interstate, but was unable to catch up.
The condition of the injured officer, and the victim of the carjacking, is unknown at this time.
At 4:02 p.m., the suspects exited at a rest stop near Radium Springs, where one of the three exited the vehicle and allegedly carjacked a red Chevrolet Cruze that was parked at the rest stop.
A bulletin sent out three days later by the Ross County Sheriff’s Office in OH said both Hanes and another suspect, James Nelson, were believed to have fled the state and were armed and extremely unsafe. He was taken into custody around 5 p.m. and was transported to a hospital for medical attention.
Police later deployed a tire-deflating device on the Chevy Cruze that had been carjacked, causing the driver to crash the stolen vehicle almost four hours after the manhunt began to unfold.
The vehicle eventually turned into a residence in the 23000 block of N.M. 185. “The suspect was unable to control that vehicle, and it crashed into a pile of wood and came to rest”, she said.
“It involved every agency in Doña Ana County”, Jameson said, including federal agencies.
Deputies learned the suspect had suffered a gunshot wound to the right thigh.
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“I can tell you that the Hatch Police Department is eight officers strong”.
