Jesse Hanes, 36, is suspected of gunning down Hatch Police Officer Jose Chavez, 33, during a traffic stop, Dona Ana County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Jameson said. Two other suspects were taken into custody later in the evening.
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Dona Ana County sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Jameson said in a statement to The Associated Press the officer was making a traffic stop when a passenger got out of the vehicle and started firing.
“He told me, ‘Mayor, he didn’t make it, ‘” Nuñez told the Sun-News shortly after 9:30 p.m. Friday.
He was a two-year veteran of the Hatch Police Department and a 2013 graduate of the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department Cadet Law Enforcement Academy.
When the assisting officer arrived, he reported seeing Officer Chavez at the passenger side of the Lexus.
Authorities didn’t identify the three suspects or the injured motorist.
Hanes has an extensive criminal history in OH, including involuntary manslaughter and robbery convictions.
Hanes and Nelson are wanted in OH in the July 25 shooting death of a 62-year-old man just outside Chillicothe, about 60 miles south of Columbus. Another officer responding to the traffic stop witnessed the shooting and called for medical attention.
After the shooting, Hanes fled the scene in a Lexus that was seen racing on the highway at speeds above 100 miles per hour, the sheriff’s department said. At some point, the officer lost the suspects and soon the auto exited I-25 at Radium Springs. A third man in the auto was a hitchhiker who is being treated as a witness and won’t be charged, Jameson said.
Authorities surrounded the stolen Cruze after it crashed into a pile of firewood at a residence. Officials did not immediately know how the men had made it there, The Albuquerque Journal reported.
The reason for the traffic stop is unknown.
Following a multi-agency manhunt, authorities arrested Hanes who had barricaded himself in the auto, Jameson said.
The manhunt came to an end, as police were able to flatten the vehicles tires using stop sticks and “coax” the driver out of the vehicle. Deputies observed the driver was suffering from a gunshot wound to his thigh.
The driver was taken into custody at around 5 p.m.
Two men who deputies believe are the other two suspects were found several miles away when deputies were tipped off that they were “acting suspicious”.
“It involved every agency in Doña Ana County”, Jameson said, including federal agencies. He had been an officer with the department for two years.
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Jesse Hanes, a 38-year-old man from OH, is suspected of shooting officer Chavez on Friday as he was preparing the paperwork during the traffic stop in the village of Hatch, about 40 miles northwest of Las Cruces. “They are a very small department, a very close-knit department”, Jameson said.
