By Sarah Roebuck
Police1
ROSWELL, N.M. — A suspect hid in a pile of tires before firing at officers, wounding one officer, video released by the Roswell Police Department shows.
The incident happened on May 15 as Roswell officers assisted the New Mexico State Police with a pickup truck that fled from a traffic stop and was traveling at speeds over 100 mph, according to a critical incident briefing released on July 18.
Officers set up spike strips in two locations to disable the vehicle. The spike strips were successful in deflating at least one of the vehicle’s tires. The vehicle eventually came to a stop, but when officers approached the vehicle, the suspect driver had fled the scene, police said.
Roswell officers, along with Chaves County deputies and New Mexico State Police troopers, saturated the area to search for the suspect.
Around five minutes into the search, Roswell Police Sgt. Chance Cavin located the suspect hiding under a pile of tires, body camera video shows.
As Cavin relayed his location to other units over the radio, the suspect emerged from the tire pile and fired at him, hitting Cavin in the lower leg and causing him to fall to the ground, video shows. Despite his injury, Cavin managed to return fire and move to a position of cover behind a shipping container.
“He’s in these tires right here, watch out!” Cavin can be heard saying.
An officer approaching the tire pile asks if Cavin is OK, to which he responds that he had been hit, video shows.
Other officers started to arrive at the scene as Cavin relayed the suspect’s location. Officer Matt Fuentes and his trainee, Recruit Officer Andres Arebalos, located Cavin and began to drag him to safety and administer aid.
As Fuentes was dragging Cavin to safety, the suspect fired a shot. Fuentes began providing suppressive fire toward the direction of the suspect, police said.
A tourniquet was applied to Cavin and he was transported to a nearby hospital in a Chaves County deputy’s vehicle, police said.
Multiple agencies then surrounded the area the suspect was barricaded in. None of the officers had a visual on the suspect from the ground level, so a Roswell officer climbed on top of one of the shipping containers that overlooked the area where the suspect was hiding. The officer gained a visual on the suspect and fired a round, police said.
A New Mexico State Police trooper joined the Roswell officer on the top of the metal container and deployed two less-lethal beanbag rounds on the suspect, police said.
After no response from the suspect, the arrest team moved in on the suspect, where he was found deceased. The suspect, identified as a 33-year-old man, had an active warrant for a felony weapons charge, police said.
The suspect sustained multiple gunshot wounds during the incident, including an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head, police said.