A New Mexico police officer was gunned down during a traffic stop and a motorist was shot during a rest stop carjacking before authorities were able to chase down three suspects and take them into custody, Dona Ana County law enforcement officials say. Nuñez said he learned of Chavez’s death through police Chief Trey Gimler, who was with Chavez’s family at University Medical Center in El Paso. His condition is unknown.
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The assisting officer reportedly returned fire toward the silver Lexus before the vehicle sped away toward Interstate 25, the statement said.
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.
As Hatch was about to stop the vehicle, another Hatch officer who had just left his assignment as a school resource officer reportedly spoke to Chavez on the phone and said he would meet Chavez to help with the traffic stop. The driver was taken into custody after a brief standoff with authorities, and the two other suspects were later found several miles away after after authorities received word of two men acting suspiciously.
Sheriff’s deputies spotted the Cruze, pursued it and were able to slow it down with “stop sticks”; the suspect crashed the vehicle into a pile of wood and briefly barricaded himself in the auto before surrendering to sheriff’s deputies, Jameson said.
Authorities say the 33-year-old was a two-year department veteran.
Deputies had to “coaxed” the driver out of the vehicle, Jameson said. A fellow officer who arrived to assist Chavez said he saw him holding paperwork and reaching for his service weapon before he was shot and fell to the ground. And their identities were not immediately known.
The incident triggered an intense, multiple-jurisdiction manhunt that was initiated by sheriff’s office.
Police officers and state employees prevent drivers from entering Hatch, N.M., after a shooting on Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.
“It involved every agency in Doña Ana County”, Jameson said, including federal agencies. He had been an officer with the department for two years. Witnesses said they heard approximately six shots. “I don’t know when the last time Hatch experienced an incident of this nature”.
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Sun-News reporters Steve Ramirez, Diana Alba Soular and Lucas Peerman contributed to this article.
