Man suspected of killing Latino police officer during traffic stop is placed under arrest
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A man wanted in the killing of police officer Jose Chavez during a traffic stop in New Mexico has been caught and is awaiting charges, authorities said Saturday.
Jesse Hanes, a 38-year-old man from Ohio, 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.
Hanes, who was driving a luxury car with two passengers, then fled and allegedly carjacked a man at a rest stop before shooting him in the stomach. The man's condition is unknown.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chavez, 33, was shot in the neck and died at University Medical Center in El Paso, Texas. He had been an officer with the department for two years.
Doña Ana County Sheriff's spokeswoman Kelly Jameson said she doesn't know why Chavez initiated the stop.
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She said sheriff's deputies spotted Hanes in the stolen vehicle on Saturday and pursued, slowing it down by deflating the tires. The suspect crashed the vehicle into a pile of wood and briefly barricaded himself in the car before surrendering to deputies, Jameson said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The suspect had a gunshot wound to the right thigh which appeared to be self-inflicted, she said.
Hanes' two passengers also were arrested.
Hanes 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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A bulletin sent out three days later by the Ross County Sheriff's Office in Ohio said both Hanes and another suspect, James Nelson, were believed to have fled the state and were armed and extremely dangerous. It warned that the two men have a violent criminal history.
Hanes was 16 and living in Columbus when he pleaded guilty in 1995 to involuntary manslaughter and other charges. He was sentenced to prison and released at 32. He went to prison again in 2014 after pleading guilty to robbery and was released in April 2015.
Nelson, who also goes by "JD," has a string of drug-related convictions in central Ohio dating back to the mid-1990s.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Chillicothe Gazette in Ohio reported Saturday that Nelson was also taken into custody in New Mexico on warrants in the July 25 shooting death of an Ohio man.
However, the Doña Ana County authorities have yet to identify the two people arrested with Hanes.
Hanes remains hospitalized and has not been booked.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Based on reporting by The Associated Press.