Recently released images show the gruesome moment a New Mexico police officer is killed during a traffic stop in New Mexico.
Video from police officer Darrian Jarrott’s squad car control camera shows state police approaching a Chevy pickup truck on Interstate 10 on Feb. 4 and asking the driver, who was stopped for having the stained glass too dark.
WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT AND LANGUAGE THAT MAY BE PERMOLENT
During a peaceful exchange that lasts several minutes, the driver identifies himself as Omar Félix Cueva and admits that he has a firearm in the vehicle, according to the news.
“Do you mind if I take it off for my safety?” Jarrott is heard asking Cueva, according to images published by Fox News.
Jarrott, who was next to the passenger truck, asks Cueva to follow him back to his squadron’s car so he can direct his name, when things get deadly.
Cueva gets out of the van with an AR-15-style rifle and opens fire.
“Oh, yes!” he hears the policeman screaming before he falls to the ground.
Cueva, 39, left quickly, leaving Jarrott on the side of the road and leading New Mexico police to a 40-mile high-speed chase, before being killed in a shootout with police.
State police said Cuvea had a “violent criminal record” and was on his way to drug trafficking when Jarrott, a five-year force veteran, arrested him, KVIA-TV said.
“Even when there was a difficult situation, the boy always smiled,” Robert Thornton, New Mexico’s state police chief, said about Jarrott after his death.
Another state police officer was injured and was treated for life-threatening injuries.