SANTA FE, N.M. — A suspect in the shooting of a state trooper was captured Sunday during a confrontation with law enforcement officers in the Albuquerque area, New Mexico State Police said.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office caught 33-year-old Jaremy Smith of Marion, South Carolina, during a gunfire chase on Sunday, state police spokesman Ray Wilson said in a news release.
The fatal shooting Friday of state trooper Justin Hare along I-40 west of Tucumcari sparked a search that ultimately focused on Smith, who was linked to a car belonging to a woman killed in his home state.
Authorities said Hare was dispatched around 5 a.m. Friday to assist a motorist in a white BMW with a flat tire on Interstate 40 west of Tucumcari.
Hare parked behind the BMW and a man got out, approached the patrol car on the passenger side and then shot the officer without warning. They said the motorist then walked to the driver’s side of the police vehicle, shot Hare again and pushed him into the backseat before taking off in the patrol vehicle.
State police later learned that the white BMW had been reported missing in South Carolina and that it belonged to a woman who died there, paramedic Phonesia Machado-Fore.
A call to the public defender’s office was not returned and it was unclear whether Smith had a legal representative.