Authorities don’t yet know why a New Mexico police officer in a small village famous for its green chili and not much more pulled over two Ohio murder suspects before being gunned down.
But the daytime encounter with Jesse Hanes and James Nelson on Friday turned out to be deadly for one of the eight police officers in Hatch, 190 miles south of Albuquerque.
Officer Jose Chavez, 33, was shot dead at a convenience store in front of a fellow officer who had just arrived, authorities said.
The suspected shooter is Hanes, 38, who along with Nelson was wanted in Ohio in the July 25 shooting death of a 62-year-old man just outside Chillicothe, about 60 miles south of Columbus.
Ohio authorities had said Hanes and Nelson, 36, were believed to have fled the state and were armed and extremely dangerous, warning that the two men have a violent criminal history.
It’s unclear whether Chavez, a father of two children who joined the Hatch Police Department two years ago, knew the suspects were wanted in Ohio.
A fellow officer who arrived to assist just as Chavez was shot reported seeing him with paperwork and appearing to draw his service weapon before smoke filled the air and Chavez fell to the ground.
Chavez was shot in the neck and airlifted to an El Paso, Texas, hospital where he later died.
Police arrested Nelson and were waiting for Hanes to be released from the hospital to book him on state charges, sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Jameson said. Hanes was treated for a gunshot wound to the right thigh that appeared to be self-inflicted, she said.
Hanes was driving a luxury car when Chavez pulled him over shortly before 4 p.m. Friday.
Chavez was standing outside the passenger’s door when Hanes reached through the window and shot him, police said. Nelson was the passenger. A third man who police said had been hitchhiking is being treated as a witness and won’t face charges.
Hanes’ arrest came after a dramatic car pursuit, a carjacking and the shooting of a bystander whose car Hanes stole, police said.