News / Society

New Mexico police officer shot dead at traffic stop

Saturday, 13 August 2016 11:31 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 13 August 2016 1:48 PM ]

Police officers block off a road after a shooting of police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, July 17, 2016. (Reuters)

A US police officer has died after being shot in the neck during a traffic stop in the state of New Mexico.

The officer, identified as 33-year-old Jose Chavez, was shot by a passenger in a vehicle he had pulled over in the town of Hatch.

Chavez had just arrived at the traffic stop when the suspect got out of the car and fired shots.

The officer, who had been with the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department for two years, died Friday after being airlifted to a hospital in El Paso, Texas.

The suspect was arrested after the shooting. Two other suspects were taken into custody later in the evening.

Authorities said the trio was responsible for shooting Chavez and for shooting another man during a carjacking, which triggered a high-speed chase.

"The incident at the rest stop triggered a multiple-jurisdiction manhunt. We had assistance from just about every police agency in this county, including air assistance from border patrol," Dona Ana County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kelly Jameson told reporters.

The incident was the latest in a string of fatal shootings of law enforcement officers across the country amid an outcry about the deaths of unarmed African Americans at the hands of police.

On July 5, Alton Sterling was fatally shot during a struggle with officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile was killed the following day by an officer in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Their deaths triggered revenge attacks against police by two black US military veterans. Five officers were shot and killed in Dallas, Texas, on July 7 and three were ambushed and fatally shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on July 17.

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