Nelson is being held on a fugitive warrant.
Advertisement
The man suspected of killing Hatch Police Officer Jose Chavez during a traffic stop Friday afternoon shot himself in the leg before being taken into custody, and was in the hospital Saturday, a sheriff’s spokesperson said during a press conference Saturday afternoon. Police say Nelson was a passenger in the auto.
A third person in the vehicle was a hitchhiker who is considered a witness.
Hanes and Nelson are wanted by authorities in OH in connection with the fatal shooting of a 62-year-old man on July 25, Ohio’s Chillicothe Gazette reported. They could not say yet why Hanes and Nelson were in New Mexico.
Sheriff’s deputies spotted the Cruze, pursued it and were able to slow it down with a tire-deflating device; 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.
A bulletin issued by the Ross County Sheriff’s Office on July 28 said Nelson and Hanes both had violent criminal histories and should be considered armed and unsafe.
Hanes fled on his own after shooting the man, but sheriff’s deputies were able to stop him by using a tire-deflating device. The suspect crashed the vehicle into a pile of wood and briefly barricaded himself in the auto before surrendering to deputies, Jameson said.
Thirty-three-year-old Hatch Officer Jose Chavez, who had been shot in the neck, died at University Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, authorities say.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Authorities have identified two men involved in the fatal shooting of a Hatch police officer during a traffic stop Friday afternoon as fugitives from OH wanted for murder.
Jesse Hanes, 38, in 2013.
The suspect vehicle fled south on I-25 with the Hatch officer who was assisting in the initial traffic stop in chase, reportedly reaching speeds of over 100 miles per hour.
Authorities say the confrontation began when Chavez pulled over Hanes in the village of Hatch, about 40 miles northwest of Las Cruces.
Two others were also arrested, but have not been identified by New Mexico authorities.
Advertisement
Just after 4 p.m., the suspect vehicle stopped at the rest stop off of I-25 near Radium Springs where one of the three suspects in the vehicle got out and allegedly car-jacked a person who owned a Chevrolet Cruze that was parked at the rest stop. Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and his 64-year-old associate were shot in the back of the head as they left the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in Queens shortly before 2 p.m. Deputy Inspector Henry Sautner said that Akonjee was killed and that the other man was taken to a hospital, where he died. That suspect sustained a gunshot to the right thigh, but it is unclear who shot the suspect.
