[music] >> Central dispatch operator 409, how can I help you? >> Uh, yes, ma'am. I have a little bit of concern here. >> This is the man at the center of one of New Mexico's most shocking police cases. On an ordinary Sunday, he's sitting alone on a fenced-off lot when a single officer pulls up to move him along. >> How's it going, boss? You've been staying here for a while? >> What's that? >> You're the one who called? >> I didn't call. >> Huh? >> They called on who? >> Oh! >> What happens in the next 30 seconds will brutally injure that officer, force one stranger [music] to risk his own life trying to save a man he's never met, and leave investigators chasing a terrifying possibility about what actually happened. >> Where was he shot? >> He does have a laceration in the back of his head. We don't know if he's shot or not. >> Well, I saw the officer fall to the ground. And by that point, I had already grabbed my gun, started running over here, and I yelled, "Hey, stop!" >> But before any [music] of that, before the detectives, the ER, and the truth, no one approaching that lot has any idea who this man really is. >> Just do what I say. Step back. Step back. Step back. Step back. Step back. Step back. [ __ ] >> On Sunday, February 11th, 2024, Jim, a property owner in Las Cruces, New Mexico, called police about a man trespassing at a commercial property on South Valley Drive. >> [music] >> He'd been dealing with problems there for some time. People had vandalized the property, left discarded needles behind, and entered through holes cut into the surrounding fence. No trespassing signs had been posted throughout the area, making it clear that nobody was supposed to be there without permission. But Jim's friend noticed a man on the property acting suspicious. >> What was he doing in like karate or something? >> Doing shadow boxing? He's just vibing. >> At approximately 4:49 p.m., Jim called police, but the information given to dispatch suggested nothing more dangerous than a routine trespassing complaint. Six minutes later, Las Cruces police officer Jonah Hernandez arrived alone. Within seconds, the routine trespassing call would turn into the most tragic incident in the Las Cruces Police Department's 96-year history. >> [snorts] >> 919697 How's it going, boss? >> Hold on. >> You've been staying here for a while? What's up? >> It's my property. >> This is your place? >> Yeah. >> So, you're the one who called? >> What's that? >> You're the one who called? >> I didn't call. >> Huh? >> I didn't call nobody. >> With his body camera still rolling, Jonah managed to crawl a few feet away, but the wound to his neck was causing him to lose blood rapidly. He was barely able to move, let alone reach his radio and call for help. But what the attacker didn't know [music] was someone nearby had already seen what was happening. 29-year-old Army veteran Isaiah Astoga watched the attacker standing over the wounded officer and immediately decided to step in. >> What the are you doing? Huh? What the are you doing, huh? You're not even real. Do you want to go down, too? Back the [ __ ] up, OR YOU'RE GOING BACK THE [ __ ] UP, OR YOU'RE GOING TO GET SHOT. >> OFFICER. HEY. HEY, where are you bleeding? Yeah, I I shot him like three or four times. He's stabbed in the neck really bad. Where's the radio? Where's the radio? Right here, right here. No. Super lady, can you help me, please? >> No, he's bleeding really bad. He was stabbed in the >> brother. Brother, please stay with us, man. Hey. >> The guy >> Stay with us, man. I need his radio, man. He's He's got a really bad right in the neck, right where my hand is. Officer down, officer down. Where are we at? >> Another passerby, former federal officer Stuart Torres, saw Isaiah trying to control the bleeding from Jonah's neck and rushed over to help. Drawing on his previous experience, Torres's instincts kicked in the second he got to the parking lot. He grabbed Jonah's police radio and sent out the call every officer dreads hearing. >> This is the cop trying to stop. Officer down, officer down. >> Immediately, as Torres sent out the distress signal, every officer in the city [music] began racing towards South Valley Drive. At the same time, Isaiah's girlfriend, Araceli Hernandez, was speaking to 911 and describing Jonah's injuries. But the wound to his neck was severe, and every second they waited for help meant more blood lost. >> [screaming] >> His neck, I got pressure on it. >> Put him on his side. Put him on his side. >> No, officer, he's on his side. >> Put him on his side. Now he's starting to bleed more. >> I'm trying. I'm trying. It's Watch out. It's right where my arm is. Are you ready? >> All right, you ready? Let go. >> And his back of the head is like so stiff. >> It's over here, Jonah, all right? Jonah! Jonah! Hey, somebody help me over here. Come on, Jonah, I'm right here, all right? Hey, check right here. I got some dish right here. Okay, hold I got pressure [screaming] here. You guys have lacerations to the back of his head. He's bleeding from his mouth. Come on, Jonah, I'm right here, dude. It's okay, man. >> [screaming] >> Jonah! This one right here? Okay. Come on, JONAH. JONAH! JONAH, WAKE UP, DUDE. JONAH! JONAH! JONAH, JONAH! [screaming] >> Isaiah had stopped the attack, but the officers arriving on the scene were about to face a sickening reality. Because they were bound by US law to save everyone they possibly could, they now had to help both Jonah and the man who had just tried to hurt him. >> This is my boyfriend's gun that he used to shoot him. >> [screaming] >> No, I want to send you we have a male down and we need fire uh >> [screaming] >> At this point, the officers still had no idea who the attacker was. But as they turned him over, Araceli was about to realize the answer was far closer to home than anyone [music] expected. >> Step back. Step back. Step back. Step back. >> [screaming] >> Come on, Jonah, I'm right here, all right? >> Hey. Go Go shut those sirens off. >> The man Isaiah had just shot was Araceli's own cousin, 29-year-old Armando Silva Jr. Somehow, the stranger they had risked their lives to stop was someone she had known all along. There was no time for Araceli to process what she had just discovered. Paramedics arrived moments later and began preparing both Jonah and Silva for emergency transport. >> Hey, he's going to die. >> Can you just Can I escort up there for you, brother? >> Escort him? >> Yeah. >> I'm being advised by fire department to escort him to Montebello. >> Yeah. >> Come on, ready? >> I don't need to >> And I will not >> Hey, go on. >> Go on. >> I think he has one. >> Come on, Jonah. >> Going to Montebello? >> Okay, I'm just going to go. >> Can I just go? >> Yeah, yeah. >> No. >> Get him on the monitor. >> WE'RE NOT WE'RE NOT CLOSE. >> HOLD ON. >> HOLD ON. HOLD ON. >> I DON'T want to wait for him. Don't let's go. Hurry up. >> Let me know when you're ready. >> We're not ready. Where was he shot? >> On his neck. >> He was not shot. It looks like it was a laceration. >> Yeah, it's on the back of his neck. >> He does have a laceration on the back of his head. >> We don't know if he's shot or not. >> All right, you guys want to go to the head? >> No. >> No. >> No suction? >> What do you guys need help with? >> Uh yeah, suction's right there. Do you know how to bag him? >> Yeah. >> Do you want gloves? No, I just need to bag him. Yeah, can you bag him? >> That's great. >> We don't have gloves. >> Yeah, we do. >> Do you guys want to have that value in? The quick >> I don't want to do that right now. >> Yep, ready? Go. >> Come on, Jonah. >> Can you do it like that? Give me 30 seconds. >> Come on, Jonah. >> Hey, stop all the bleeding from the head. >> Okay. >> On the head? >> Yeah. >> What do you got to say real quick? >> We don't know if he was shot or stabbed. >> Yeah, we don't know. >> This is where things got complicated. It seemed like Officer Jonah had a gunshot wound in the back of his head, but Silva attacked him with a knife, [music] not a gun. But the nature of his injuries could be looked at later. Right now, the only priority was to get him into the emergency room as fast as possible to save him. >> Come on. >> Hey, I sent Officer Jonah over. >> Yeah. >> What What's What's What's Jonah's wife? >> What's Jonah's wife? >> What's Jonah's wife? >> The officers escorting Jonah were among his closest friends, but the only thing they could do was wait for an update from the doctors. Back at the crime scene, the reality of what had happened was beginning to sink in. >> Are they going north or south, do you >> I don't know yet. I don't know yet. I don't know yet. >> Sit. You're good. Okay. >> [laughter] >> However difficult it was, the scene still had to be secured, the evidence preserved, and every witness interviewed. Detectives needed to understand how a routine trespassing call had turned so violent within seconds, and no one had seen more of it than Isaiah [music] Astorga. >> So, I'm Detective Marianas. My name is Oscar. This is the other detective, Manny Fres. Can I start with your name, sir? >> Isaiah Astorga. >> And how did you end up here today? >> So, [snorts] my girlfriend works at Karen's Animal House, which is down the street. >> Okay. >> And I picked her up around 4:30, and we're supposed to go to Super Bowl party, and I had to go to Walmart to fix the hub. So, I actually had came down Loman, and [snorts] I'd seen a guy here at the building, and Jim, which is the guy with the hat over there next to the girl in white, owns this property, >> [snorts] >> and I worked with him a lot here. He told me he's had issues with homeless people here, and to let [snorts] him know if he if I do or see anybody. So, I did, >> [music] >> and I drove around a bunch of times cuz I knew he was going to call the cops. [snorts] So, I drove around down to the railroad tracks, and we'd turn around, and I went like parked in here, and the majority of my parking was in this lot with the trailer. >> Where where the trailer homes right here? Okay. >> That was my most of the time I spent, and >> [music] >> I took pictures and videos of him here and stuff. I saw him lighting a fire and stuff, so I was just updating him, and I actually sent one video to my friend Vic, cuz he he owns or rents the side of the building right here. >> Okay. >> So, as I was waiting, I saw him possibly leaving, which is what I thought. So, when I left that parking lot, came down, went back down to the railroad tracks, turned around, and I saw two guys uh walking the ditch, and I thought that might have been him cuz he's wearing black. So, from that distance, I actually saw him walking back to [music] this building, so I thought, "Oh, no, he's still here." By then, [snorts] I saw the officer had just rolled up and parked. I I don't know which one it is. >> Okay. >> Probably the one with the light top, and I decided to park right there. That's my car, the black >> The black one? >> Yeah, it's a 2014 Nissan Versa. As soon as I parked, I saw the officer walking towards this [snorts] guy, and it turns out it's actually my girlfriend's cousin. His name's AJ. As soon as he was walking up to him, I saw AJ running at him and attacking officer. I >> [snorts] >> didn't see the knife at first. I thought he was just punching him. When I saw the officer fall to the ground and by that point, I had already grabbed my gun and started running over here and I yelled, "Hey, stop." [music] And he looked at me and I saw the officer with a lot of blood right here and [music] it was gushing. Just gushing out. >> And so he started coming at me, so I fired on him twice. I I believe it was twice and he really didn't seem phased by the first one. The second one, he kind of fell down and he started to get up and I noticed the officer again just still gushing blood and so at that point, I fired another round as he was getting back up and I saw him drop to the ground and so I started running to the officer [music] and didn't know if he was going to get back up or not. So, I actually ran back to him, ran back to the officer, ran back to him and I didn't know what to do. So, I ran back to AJ noticed that the knife was That's the first time I saw the knife. That the knife was away and uh he wasn't moving, so then I went to this officer and that's when I noticed the gash in his neck. [music] So, I put pressure on his neck. So, I >> [snorts] >> Uh so, I was holding pressure on his neck and at this point, he uh there's another guy um that guy in front of this car on his phone, he actually came up with his gun drawn. And by then, my girlfriend was already up here and she was tying him. I was helping and I could feel that he had It was like abnormal in the back of his head. I It turns out he was slashed by kept trying to rotate his head uh cuz he was coughing up blood. I didn't want him to choke. And I was kind of struggling and he told me to turn him to the side, but I was trying to maintain that pressure and fast and help me help me and by then an officer came running up and so when he grabbed his gauze we ended up switching. That's kind of it, but by then all the officers came and so >> The fact that Isaiah didn't know Silva was armed with a knife showed that he didn't even know the danger he was jumping into when trying to help. But as he continued talking, he was about to realize his attempt to help may have come with an unintended consequence. >> Um, did the officer say anything to him? >> I didn't hear anything because my windows were rolled and we were in that distance, but when I yelled at him to stop he did yell at me and I don't know what he said. I'm not sure. I think I'm pretty positive my third round had hit him. >> Okay. >> But for a moment I was terrified that I missed and actually hit the officer, but he fell [snorts] down to the ground and didn't move, so I'm pretty positive that I hit him. >> Okay. >> Or else unless the second one hit, but >> Isaiah was an Army veteran, but nothing could have prepared him for how quickly this happened. Only a few seconds passed between Jonah greeting Silva and Silva plunging the knife into him. Isaiah had reacted almost entirely on instinct [music] and with his adrenaline still running high, he hadn't even realized he had fired four rounds. Now, with Jonah still fighting for his life, no one could yet say where every bullet had gone. But as they hoped he would pull through, the detectives moved over to Araceli to find out more about Silva and what might have triggered him to do what he did. >> And you said the Asian is your cousin? >> Yes. >> Okay. What's his history? >> Um, so he does deal a lot with uh mental health issues. Uh he does have a history of uh >> [music] >> drug abuse. He is I mean me and Isaiah have seen him on [snorts] the streets. We picked him up, we've taken him out taken him out to eat. He just [music] doesn't He's not okay. >> Is it drug abuse? What do you Do you know what drugs he uses or assume that he used? >> Um from what I know, heroin, meth, spice. I think it started with spice. >> And then mental health is Do you know anything that he's been fully diagnosed with? What? >> I believe he was diagnosed I want to say bipolar or schizophrenic. >> This is the first time the detectives heard what might have been going on inside Silva's head at the time of the attack. It also explains the words he said to Officer Jonah right after he stabbed him. But that's just part of what the detectives were trying to understand here. >> What's the last time you saw him before today? >> Oh gosh, I don't want to say maybe like summer, fall of 2023. >> Okay. >> The last I heard of him, I just My grandma pays half of his rent so he can have a So he's not out >> Do you know >> on the streets. >> You don't know his address, do you? >> I want to say it's on Pikachu. >> But you don't know for sure? >> know for sure. >> Okay. And your your your grandma's the one that's that helps him pay >> My grandma and his mom, which is my aunt, they go halves on the >> Okay. >> With Silva's rent taken care of, there was no reason for him to be living out on the streets, but he still chose to do so and had Isaiah, Araceli, and Torres not been there that afternoon, there may have been no one capable of stopping him after he attacked Jonah. But while they were successful in stopping Silva in time, things at the hospital had taken a turn for the worse. >> Doctor, here. >> Is there a stab on the neck? >> Yeah, stab on the neck. >> All right. >> I want to go through. >> I don't know how to go through with this. I don't know what to >> Is this all from one >> We don't know what happened. >> There's also gunshot. >> I know, but that's the bad guy. >> The doctors tried everything they could, but Jonah's injuries were too severe for him to survive. By then, word of the attack had spread throughout Las Cruces, and his family had already reached the hospital. >> His wife and child are at the hospital. >> [snorts] >> Jonah's wife and two young sons had lost their husband and father. But even after Officer Jonah Hernandez was pronounced dead, one agonizing question remained unanswered. In the chaos, Isaiah had fired four rounds at Silva while the two men were still dangerously close to Jonah. Investigators now had to determine exactly what had killed the officer, Silva's knife or one of the bullets fired by the man who had stepped in to save him. And until they knew, there was an awful possibility hanging over everyone involved. But once the autopsy was completed, there was no longer any doubt about what had happened. Officer Jonah had suffered 14 sharp force injuries, both stab wounds and deep cuts. The fatal injury was a devastating wound to his neck. The examination found no gunshot wounds anywhere on his body. Isaiah's bullets had never struck him. Jonah had died entirely from the injuries inflicted by Armando Silva. Silva had been struck after Isaiah fired four rounds at him. He was transported from the scene as emergency crews fought to save Jonah, but Silva was pronounced dead on arrival. Isaiah Astorga and his girlfriend, Araceli Hernandez, survived the attack, but the weight of what happened stayed with them long after that night. In October 2025, more than 240 officers, relatives, and first responders gathered as the Wounded Blue honored them for their courage. Both received the organization's highest civilian distinction, recognizing those who risk their own lives in an attempt to save a police officer. Isaiah had been unable to bring Jonah home to his family, but the autopsy confirmed that his decision to intervene had stopped Silva without causing Jonah any further harm.