[Music]
all right what type of training do you
have with
new mexico stickies i have a training
from
uh from dui training to
investigation training interrogation
training uh
traffic light training and uh
weapon qualifications as well
are you on any specialty teams yes sir
what special teams are you i'm in the
full-time k-9 unit
how long have you been okay it's been
about four years
i'm uh also a tfo with uh hsi
for about the same time about four years
uh would you say you have any training
as far as on the patrol side
that your average officer wouldn't have
uh i will say maybe with uh
conducting a drugs modeling cases uh
traffic stops involving uh that type of
cases
would you say like interdiction training
training
is that both through the state or is
that some federal training you've had so
it's uh with the state uh some but uh
after that it's kind of a federal
training as well okay yes
okay and then i think that's it as far
as you know your
uh job description and whatnot uh
so mr palomares today we are doing an
investigation on to an officer-involved
shooting incident that happened
february 4th 2021 is that sound about
right to you
yes mr promise if you can start from the
beginning of the very
first uh i would say knowledge that you
had
of this investigation slash into this
suspect uh
all that do you understand yes sir okay
go ahead and start from again
let me know if uh if you need if you
need a break or if i need to
stop the notes okay yeah you're good
okay so
again i'm assigned to uh to hsi i have a
single purpose uh canine duck
and he's only for for narcotics he's not
for patrol he's not to attack his only
narcotic
single purpose um i had a dog
for about three four years
in my involvement with this case started
back in
january 28th i remember the
hsi supervisor mark thomas
called my phone and he had asked if i
could uh
help him uh conducting to conduct a
whisper stuff
for them he told me that the car was
gonna be a
black honda sedan
no no license plate calnes told me that
apparently the car was going to be
driven by
omar cueva felix and he also stated that
uh
the target has sold some fentanyl pills
to the undercover
agent at the labs gas station down on
i-10 mile marker 132.
um supervisor khan is stated to me that
uh
cuellar felix was
acting very paranoid throughout the drug
deal
he stated that he actually took a
picture had taken a picture from one of
the
undercover units assisted with this case
and he presented a picture to the
undercover agent
supervisory conus also stated that uh
he had multiple fentanyl pills heroin
and he also mentioned a fully loaded
ak-47
that was gonna be located between the
driver's seat
the center council i didn't ask
for location for the possible narcotics
so at that point
i called my uh well i'll go back into
clarification
i traffic was very heavy around this
time
and i told the supervisor comments that
uh
due to having a heavy traffic i was
probably not going to
engage in a vehicle pursuit if the
suspect wouldn't stop
due to high traffic and he agreed to
that
right after that after we finished uh
having that conversation
i called the new mexico state police
canine sergeant run with and i notified
him about
the details and about this case
all the details incl also in
including uh details for that
they had told me that uh cueva felix
had already uh charges for felony
drug uh charges in the past in the state
of california
so i notified that to my to my sergeant
and i notified
uh a weapon involved as well
so my sergeant advised me to uh
that i was okay conducting the traffic
stop as long as i had a secondary unit
to
back me up at that moment i
remember calling a new mexico state
police
officer alfonso montes
and i requested for his assistance he
was not too far from
my area which was around i-10
by the corralitos area and he agreed to
help me on the traffic stop
we set up around mile marker 114
114 and we pretty much just waited there
for
instructions from the hsi agents about
the
exact location for the suspect and any
other
updates about 10 to 20 minutes
passed through and i received an online
call from
supervisor candace and he told me that
uh
he didn't need to do the stuff anymore
from what he told me when i can recall
he stated that uh
the target has sold all the fentanyl
pills to the
undercover agent
so that's my initial uh involvement with
this case
uh that was january 28th uh
so some sometime passed in about uh
february first i remember receiving a
phone call from
hsi special agent matthieu
rodriguez and he asked me
if i could assist with a whisper stop
for omar cueva felix
a special agent told me that the target
was supposed to be picking up drugs from
the phoenix area
and he was supposed to bring the drugs
to uh the damning area
um however i told uh
special agent rodriguez that i was not
gonna be able to assist him with this
traffic stop
for the same person that i was working
on hotel county
by us 54 so it was pretty hard for me to
do all that to them
he understood and he said that he was
gonna try to
uh to maybe get all their units to
contact the staff um
so the the following day i remember
we uh seen an email
from uh fusion uh
and it was a bolo a bolo for uh omar
cueva felix i remember seeing the bolo
and it
talked about the possible
drug smuggling case from arizona to
new mexico i also remember that he typed
that
he was known to carry weapons that's
what i can remember from the polo
some time passed and i believe that it
was around
february 3rd when
uh special agent uh rodriguez
called me again and uh
he told me that uh he asked me again for
for my assistance
trying to stop uh well marco
felix um and and i agreed to help him
um i agreed to help him he advised me
that
they were gonna have a briefing
at the hsi office in las cruces the
following day which was going to be a
thursday
he mentioned that it was going to be 10
in the morning
and i advise him that uh since i already
knew all the details to
to the target and i thought that i was
probably gonna be able to make it
and i just told him to to keep me posted
or
of any updates or any changes to that
case
and he he agreed to that
right after that i remember receiving
two emails from uh special agent
rodriguez
um the first one was in reference to the
location and time to the briefing for
the this case
and the second one was in reference to a
time change which it was a temporary
same location
i never opened the initial attachment
from a
special agent's original email
after the fact after this case i never
knew about
the take by bust
that was supposed to take place in the
event that new mexico's the police
units would not be able to conduct the
traffic stop i
never knew about the bypassed
it was i was just getting the
the last emails uh i guess the new
emails
to this like chain email it was a
multiple emails multiple replays
and i was getting ready and i i didn't
get
i didn't open the original email they
didn't even know that it was like
actually they're talking about the
bypass
so the the following day uh
thursday february 4th i remember that i
went to work around
10 or 10 30 in the morning
and i remember that i actually drove
straight to
to i-10 interstate 10 to the around the
lab's
gas station area and i was just
going straight to i tend to to wait for
instructions for the instructions from
the hsi agents
and i remembered that uh hsi hsi
special agent rodriguez called me he
called my cell phone
and i remember that he mentioned that he
has spoken with um
we talked and i told him i'm ready to go
i'm ready to help you guys with the
assist and everything
so but then after that he mentioned that
he has spoken with new mexico state
police
supervisor madrid
he stated that he had requested
a units from deming or las cruces area
to to stop targets vehicle in case they
will
see it in the world um
however i i still don't know why
why he requested assistance from
uh regular patrol units when
they don't even have a k-9 units um for
state police
i was the only k-9 unit from step police
available in the south
during that time the all they can and
you know was off
he was his dad anyway so i don't
understand the reason
if we had a plan why he went ahead and
asked for
assistance to that i don't know i never
asked anything i was just gonna wait and
take care of business and conduct my
traffic stop
um so some time passed
and um i remember
calling my my supervisor my canine
sergeant
sergeant wood and i informed him about
uh
about the traffic stop again and again i
provided the same details that uh
already had from the previous uh
conversations with the agents and he he
agreed for me to
to help with the traffic stop and again
he just
instructed me to have a second unit to
contact the stop
not to do it by myself
at that time i remember calling one of
the
new mexico state police unions
officer jose barron requested for
assistance to see if he could help me
do this stuff like he was already busy
assisting lcpd
uh right after that i remember calling
mexico state police officer alfonso
montes
and he agreed to help me with the
traffic stop
he stated that uh he was already done
doing
bin inspections and he agreed to help
we uh set up uh night 10
near mile marker 127 and again we're
just uh
waiting for the vehicle and um
one thing that i remember that
special agent rodriguez or or
supervisor comments they never told me
to
cancel the traffic stop that's why i was
still in place set up because they never
told me to cancel even that after they
had a
made arrangements with other possible
patrol units to do the stuff they never
cancel me
on that on this case so i waited around
the one marker 127
and i remembered that uh
special agent joshua laughter
he was the one that was
pretty much updating me of the target's
vehicle
i remember that he sent the pictures
with the target's vehicle
and the first picture that i can
remember it was a
a white uh buick sedan uh duke suv
and he told me that uh he didn't
know that i i know license plate we
couldn't figure out the license plate
so that was the first picture for the
possible
target that he was going to be driving
right after i
received that picture uh special agent
rodriguez
called me and he stated that uh the
target
was supposed to be in that white buick
along with his wife and one kid
so and
that was the the first initial target
speaker
a few minutes later i remember receiving
another
text message from special agent
laughter and he sent me a picture
of a white single cap
chevrolet pickup truck it was a long bed
pickup truck and i remembered that he
had a black headache
rack no license plate we couldn't tell
on the license plate but
that was supposedly the updated targets
vehicle
during the conversation with a special
agent laughter
i remember that he he mentioned
that they were going to try to have las
cruces
damien or las cruces patrol units
to snag the vehicle again i didn't ask
the reasons why i was still in place
waiting for the vehicle to come towards
chris's didn't ask any questions
um he also stated that uh
he was pretty much giving the updates on
the vehicle description
in location as he was coming towards las
cruces
i remember that he mentioned that uh
he said after he said that uh
las cruces and deming units that were
they were not trying to have them
to stop the vehicle i remember him
saying that
they were already set up at the 102 mile
marker on night time
so to me is something like the staple
these units
ready to assist again i didn't ask any
more questions
and and then he kept on updating the
location for the targets vehicle the
white pickup truck
and the last location that i remember
he said that he was on i-10 passing
mile marker 92 eastbound and that's the
last location that he
advised me and then um
right after that maybe just a few
minutes
after that conversation i remember
remember special agent
rodriguez he called me and he told me
that uh
state police had conducted a traffic
stop on the
target speaker 100 mile marker
and which makes sense after having that
conversation with
laughter that he was going to be around
that area
iron officer montes
was able to see in his computer that uh
unit 1251
had a initial had initiated a traffic
stop
he was showing him on the traffic stop
around mile marker 100
and that made sense after
talking to him and issue science that he
was going to be the
the target's vehicle
unit 1251 um i didn't know
officer jarrett i didn't have his phone
number
to communicate with him so i don't know
who was communicating officer jared
the the uh descriptions for the target
speaker
i don't know if it was issue site direct
calling him and giving him the
exact location and exact vehicle
description that i don't know
how he was able to get that information
so a few minutes passed and again like
uh
rodriguez coming stated that they had
conducted the traffic stop and he also
mentioned
that uh the srt was
uh very near to the traffic stop
and he told me that they were
making sure that everything was okay
with the traffic stop and
uh that helped me
feel better because it's having you know
the information about the totality the
circumstances i feel
comfortable that uh the srt was pretty
much keeping nice on the officer doing
the stuff
right after that i we
officer montes and i we started driving
to
to deming area to go and assist uh
51 and we were we went
to check on him but also i went to
the traffic stop i was trying to go to
the traffic stop
in case i needed a k-9 deployment and
assistance with
vehicle search we started driving
towards the stop when nms
new mexico state police in dispatch
called my phone
and they wanted information about the
stop for 1251
and i just pretty much told them that uh
we were headed that way to
for a possible canine deployment and
possible vehicle search
they told me that uh in and i advised
them what the hsi had told me
that uh diacious hsi srt
was near the traffic stop making sure
that everything was okay
and after that they told me that they
were doing a weapon check on 1251
and they advised me that he was not
responding to that welfare check
i told them just you know that i was
told that srt is there but keep on doing
that welfare check
just in case just to make sure and we
kept on driving towards
12 51 right after that conversation with
uh dispatch i remember that uh
special agent rodriguez uh
called my phone and he sounded extremely
concerned and
[Music]
he was he sounded very concerned and
disturbed
the way he was talking and right after
he told me that a state police officer
wasn't down
at that point right after that
conversation with him oh and then he
told me that uh
he he stated state police officer is
down
and he told me that uh the targets
vehicle continued traveling
east on my tent towards las cruces
and after i hang out with rodriguez
um i remember hearing the
dispatch and the mexico police in
dispatch
airing out the officers down and
based on the information that i had on
the targets vehicle
i went ahead and provided this patch
with uh targets vehicle which was the
white pickup truck i did not know if
they had that information or not i just
wanted to make sure that they have the
right information and um
officer montes and i continue traveling
westbound on night 10 towards 12 51 with
lights and sirens already on we were
trying to
to to assist uh and i'll say about uh
mile marker 113 113.
now i spotted the white pickup truck he
was
traveling uh eastbound at this location
um officer montesson and i crossed
uh the median with the lights and sirens
still on and i remember that we
attempted to
to start the suspects vehicle the
fleeing suspect
um i'm going to do clarification uh
right before this
before having bishop from the ypca truck
i told officer montes that we should
look for a
location to to do the stop spikes and
right after that officer montes
advised me that the spikes will not have
any
effect on the violent fleeing suspect
he stated that we we should instead try
to shoot throughout
the windshield to to stop him from
harming any other people
like he didn't say to harmony or any
other people but that's
that's what's making sense and that's
why he probably said that
so right after that i have issue on the
vehicle
going eastbound on nighttime my marker
113.
we turned around got behind the vehicle
uh trying to to stop it but uh the yp
truck never stopped actually the the
driver
he was going fast he was traveling at a
high rate of speed
i said he was traveling about 90 to
92 to 105 miles per hour
still on eastbound and i remember that
he kept on driving on the
lane number one and lane number two he
was
driving erratically as well
so i believe that it was about three
miles after
chasing the white pickup truck
i remember that the vehicle started to
slow down
right before uh mile marker 116
which was an exit in at first i thought
that he was gonna take that exit
but then he didn't
uh he actually stopped uh on the highway
uh he stopped between the exit and the
bridge
right next to the exit uh the bridge
located
of the exit that's where he stopped i
remember that
the truck stopped uh very fast
and all i can remember that the driver's
door opened up immediately and i
remember
a male subject with long hair
uh getting out of the driver's area
very fast everything happened so fast
but that's like
that's the details that i can remember
i remember that uh the object had his uh
both hands
stretched out towards myself but i
couldn't tell
what kind of uh he was holding an object
but i couldn't tell
exactly what kind of object and right
after that
i remember that uh seeing some kind of
like smoke coming from the
from the driver's hands and
before i realized that this subject and
the suspect
was uh shooting at me in office
romantics
nah i was at that time i was
still inside my unit because everything
happened so fast
and actually i i got extremely scared uh
i've never been in that situation before
it's nothing that
happens every day and i i fear for my
life um
i fear for my life at that moment but i
i knew that i needed to act i needed to
act on this uh
incident so i didn't want to stay inside
my union because i knew that
the windshield was uh was not going to
protect me from from the rounds coming
towards myself
so i i remember grabbing my rifle from
my unit
and i ran outside my unit and
i remember running towards the back of
the unit
and i went to take cover to the right
front area of my unit i cannot remember
if it was
kneeling or just squatting but i
remember that
the suspect was still shooting round
stories myself
and i actually remember hearing
the rounds at a very close distance and
again
i was out here for my life because
i didn't know what was going to happen
however i
i knew that i needed to to act
and my only instinct was to
do fire rounds back to to the suspect
to stop the threat i wanted to stop them
from trying to
harming us or other people
so i have to fire my my rifle
i believe that i run i fire about five
to ten rounds
um i could not tell if i was striking
the
suspect or the truck i couldn't tell
it was a fairly it was kind of a far
distance
right after that i will say about maybe
a few seconds later
the suspect he got back
in his uh in the white pica truck and i
remember that he was uh
driving away when i still shot
i can't remember if he was one or two
rounds as he was
driving away but uh i did it because
i knew that he already taking an officer
down
and he tried to to kill us
so i knew that i needed to at least try
to disable the vehicle or him stop
stopping from trying to
harming other people so i did it
out of frustration i wanted him to to
stop uh from
hurting other people i don't think that
i was able to hit
the suspect or the vehicle at that point
as he kept on driving
so at that moment i remember uh getting
inside my unit
um and continuing with uh
with that change the vehicle pursued on
910 eastbound
and i remembered that uh
we were approaching uh the border patrol
checkpoint uh i don't recall the mile
marker
but uh we're still going eastbound and i
remember that i seen
the back window of the white pickup
truck uh
like exploding and i remember seeing
some kind of
like smoke coming out of the back window
and that's when i realized that uh
the suspect the driver was shooting uh
towards my unit again
it's not nothing i see every every day
so
i got i got pretty scared i got pretty
scared and
i fear for my life again uh because i
knew that the windshield wasn't gonna
protect me much
and i was in direct fire of the
the suspect i was right behind the white
pickup truck
so my only reaction at this moment was
to uh
kind of like go back to the to go to the
right lane that slowly
and i believe that i even drove on the
shoulder for a few i cannot remember
exactly
but i was just trying to stay out of the
direct fire
and make myself safe
throughout this spawn at this time i
don't know where officer montes
was how far to me but i knew he was
behind me but
i don't know how far he how far he was
for my unit
so we continued with the vehicle search
the driver he was still driving
erratically as he was going against
speeding uh
between 90 and 105 miles per hour
he was waving pretty bad
driving at some point he was even
driving in the center of the road
not even in a lane and i noticed that
the traffic started to get
extremely heavy i remember a lot of
semi trucks so the suspect
started to pass traffic on the
shoulder at this location i believe that
it was
after mile marker 127.
he started to pass on the shoulder and
i believe that he did it for about maybe
two three miles i cannot remember
exactly
and then after that
i noticed uh i remember seeing that
white
pickup truck driving into the center
meeting
trying to avoid the spikes and this took
place around mile marker 132-ish around
that area
um right after that the suspect was able
to
get back on the road and continue
eastbound on nighttime
right after this moment there were
multiple units
and there were some units between my
unit
and the suspect's vehicle so uh
at moments i i didn't have a full uh
visual for the white pikachu right so
what i did i told the
dispatch i told them to
have the second unit take over comps
because i didn't have a visual on the
vehicle anymore
i had the issue on enough but not very
clear because i was kind of far
at this point and that's when i don't
know what
unit exactly to cover the the cops
i don't know if it was state police lcpd
or
the hana county sheriff i don't know who
took over
the pursuits i do not recall
i continue on eastbound behind the other
units
but i do not recall seeing the the lcpd
unit
conducting the pit on the ypca truck
all i remember that i arrived on scene
after the white pickup truck had been
stopped disabled and i remember
getting off my unit and still have my
rifle
because i didn't know what was happening
exactly i didn't have a clear view
i got off my unit with my rifle and i
remember multiple
officers trying to to hang up uh
the suspect the one that had been inside
the white pickup truck
i remember that he was already laying
down on the on the ground
and i also remember seeing blood from
the back of his head and inside the
mouth
right after that i looked to the other
side
and i remember that uh multiple officers
were trying to assist officer adrian de
la garza
and i remember seeing blood on uh it
appeared that
he had it on the right armpit but i
couldn't know exactly but that's why i
saw the blood
after they cut out the uniform and
that's pretty much my my involvement
with this case
you mentioned hsi's supervisor i don't
know if i misheard you
mark thomas collins congress called us
comments with uh kate yes
k-a-l-n-a-s yes yes
and then you had mentioned another uh
hsi agent
you said laughter or uh joshua not there
joshua yes sir
yes i don't i know him or not but he has
takes him in the locations well you're
for sure on that name uh yes
that's what i have from online complex
okay
did you ever have a contact with an
agent
no no okay
okay if you don't mind if we can
primarily focus on your discharge first
and then go back in some of their
details that work for you
um when you said he pulled over about
the 116 up to that point
there was no rounds being exchanged he
wasn't firing at you at that point
that you're aware of that is correct
can i add a little bit so that is
correct but
based on the information about taking an
officer down
and not stopping for our units
i have reasons to believe that he was
probably trying to
to stop and try to ambush us at that
area that's why
that's why i uh i slowed down as well i
wanted to be safe i just wanted to add
that and and you create the distance
between his vehicle stopping and your
vehicle stopping
is that anywhere similar to a normal
traffic stop
that would have been greater uh it would
be less
space on a regular traffic stop okay so
i created these things
again based on the information uh i have
reasons to believe that he was not
trying to shoot back
okay like how he had done the problem
with the other officer
and you described um when you're still
in your unit he's exiting his unit
his hands are extended out in front of
him you're still sitting in your
driver's seat or your vehicle
correct you have been very pissed okay
and just to kind of elaborate or kind of
accentuate what you're saying
you see his hands extended out to you
and you see smoke coming from its hands
correct
you're still positioned inside of your
vehicle at that time correct
as far as your that's shooting right at
the 116
um could you estimate about how many
shots you heard from he's coming from
his side
man maybe
between 10 or 15 or 10 and 20 i i don't
know
and then when he said his arms are sent
so you never
was able to identify rifle or handgun
correct i just
noticed that he had an object but i it
happened so fast and i was thinking
about my safety
i couldn't identify the object and i
know this is going to be difficult as
well
um being around firearms or
qualifications and stuff like that your
handgun versus your rifle
could you distinguish at that point or
could you just hear gunshots
um
it sounds loud it's something fairly
loud okay even due to the distance it
sounded fairly loud yes
so i couldn't say that it was louder
than a regular handgun
maybe so when you said you filed
you fired one or two rounds as he was
leading
um and you're trying to disable the
vehicle you're trying to shoot the tire
or
towards the suspect either
yes uh yes either i just wanted to stop
them from harming other people
um you said you continued engaging in
the pursuit as you continue going out
and then you said right around the
border patrol checkpoint
you see that back window explode out
correct
okay and then he began shooting at at
that point right yes
could you distinguish what he was
shooting
i i couldn't because it was a hand rack
in the
dark windows all i remember seeing uh
glass all over in smoke consistent with
uh
with rounds but i couldn't tell what uh
he was using exactly okay
would you say um right there where you
he started you start seeing the glass
explode
um so i think you had cetera did you
start
spacing yourself further yes i get a
safe um
a greater distance and i didn't drive
right behind direct him i actually
started driving on
on the right lane and maybe at some
point on the shoulder
okay so that one time you were the
primary correct
primary pursuit officer yes it happened
from uh
small marker 113 all the way to
approximately my marker
132 132
um any reason why
or um how did you
not become the primary officer anymore
did you really just voluntarily
relinquish or just
i have no idea until this moment i i
don't know
um i don't know i don't know why they
decided to change things last minute
no as far as the pursuit of the vehicle
yeah yeah
what was i uh because you were first the
primary pursuit officer correct correct
so after 132 something happens yes did
you become
third or fourth right yes so there were
multiple units
uh so at that point some other units uh
got it between the suspect speaker and
my unit
so that's that's the reason they're just
jumping on or turning around uh
i just remember seeing probably coming
out of the median or i don't know where
they came so now they just converge in
between you guys yes
when it comes to stop you so you didn't
see the pit maneuver done by the officer
when you exit your vehicle you have your
rifle with you do you hear any rounds
going off or anything
i don't remember i don't recall her in
here you know but you go up and you see
you know them trying to cuff him and
then you see dela guards are correct
correct
the rifle that you have is a department
issued
correct okay uh two two three
uh it's uh yes ar-15
and one clarification um right after uh
the suspect was already secure and uh
officer lagassa was being taken care of
i uh i gave my rifle to uh
new mexico state police sergeant antonio
palomares and he secured my rifle in
this unit
i forgot to add that to clarification
um you were subsequently i believe
brought here to new mexico state police
for what we call
the processing of the officer is that
correct correct okay
what those photographs and download and
everything that was taking place here is
that a true representation of how you
were on this day at work
yesterday
based on your experience with uh hsi
what is your definition
of a whisper stop whisper stuff is when
you have information
on a vehicle that is uh carrying a
possible narcotics it's when an agent
calls you and gives you all the details
and he still wants us to
do a well of tropic stuff that's pretty
much uh a whisper step
uh uh we still have to find our own
probable cost
but we have to play that like a regular
traffic stop
and based on the information that we
have from the agents
we that's when we take action and
uh subsequently ask for consent to
search and locate
the narcotics based on your experience
uh
well i guess i would take it you've done
a handful of these for
hsi dea other federal agencies correct
i do this this uh
kind of stops uh whisper stuffs very
often
i do it for hsi and for other
federal agencies as well normally uh
based off your experience um
what is the reasoning to do with for
stop rather than continue with
with the operation so one of the reasons
that i can think of right now
it's uh they don't want to burn the ci
the confidential informant
and um they want us to
to do a well out so they don't burn the
ci
or days when i do um
sometimes they don't have the money to
purchase the drugs
so they want us to do the stuff to
intercept them before
he gets to the undercover agent could
you give me an estimate on
how many uh the how many kind of stops
these whisper stops have you done to
where
they're watching you as well where hsi
or dea or
any other agencies watching you mean
like near tropics
it's not too common um i mean
they are close by but they're not that
close
or even with the srt
it's common but not too commenting have
they ever
stopped on your traffic stop
hardly ever okay have you ever any kind
of alluded to a little bit
about the srt have they ever requested
you do any stops and informed you that
an srt team is going to be there close
by
or just agents no just agents i i don't
recall at this moment
having srt right close to my
traffic stop like i don't remember that
with that information
of you know an srt team being close by
would that affect your processing you're
thinking about conducting this stop or
how you would do it or or anything would
it change any dynamic of your thought
process of the stop the systems
so first i didn't know that srt was
gonna be
with me but if that would be the case um
it would have changed things because i
know that i was not going to be able to
conduct a
uh clear well-loved stuff it was
probably jeopardize the wall off
uh so that would have changed everything
yes
okay and you had mentioned earlier about
the string of emails
that you saw the initial one but you
didn't get the information about the srt
correct okay until what point did you
find that out after that after the
incident
yes sir and you said in that string of
visit to your state police account
correct okay and i know sometimes it
you'll get like some information and
it'll be like dot dot dot another one
dot dot dot
and stuff like that so without opening
it all the way up you weren't able to
see that original one
correct i just got the most recent one
which was the location in time for the
briefing
like the original one so many replies
and i
didn't even see that one okay and then
subsequently after the fact being able
to go back into your email and seeing
that original it was the bolo correct
it was the bypassed uh
he said that it was uh uh in case the
nmsp will not be able to conduct the
traffic stop
they were gonna try to do a bike bust
okay did i describe where
uh i believe it was in las cruces area
okay
okay you talked about the the fusion
bowl okay
do you receive that on your your email
correct
okay and what district do you work out
of like which your primary just to
consider
uh d4 las cruces
but i'm assigned to that canine and
we're mobile but
most of the time i'm stationed here in
las cruces
okay
um so your only conversation is with
matt rodriguez correct
uh yeah as far as
phone yes right yes okay
and he'd never tell you he never
identifies
the other new mexico state police
officers involved in this
no no but he tells you there's somebody
involved right
he told me that he had requested
assistance but i
didn't know who he was or okay
i forgot what time it was but we had a
well
he showed us um a message uh a picture
of a cat
you sent that to him like showing uh 12
uh officer jared was in this area right
uh do you remember maybe maybe
because i remember that we uh we saw 12
51
around that area and i couldn't even i
even forgot about that but that's
possible yes
i didn't even remember about that but
that's very possible because we uh
we have access to that cat and we can
see that location
so that's that's very possible yesterday
okay did you ever direct
message anybody within state police on
that day
reference this operation slash traffic
stop
yes the only one it was officer alfonso
montes
and that was to send them the pictures
for the
targets vehicle other than that uh
no no i'm just uh sergeant wood and
he was over the phone and you never had
any contact with sergeant madrid
no no no never
people were you aware of um
officer here making the stop or did you
just see that what's on the cab
or was it not until rodriguez called you
and told you about this
so talking to uh
rodriguez he had told me that he was
gonna
probably have units to attempt to stop
it
in ancient uh laughter so
i had heard you know that they were
probably gonna try
however i was never a cancer i was i was
still waiting no good
vehicle but you you never heard the
i don't know how your guys's systems
kind of work sometimes any radio
transmission from monster jared making a
stop or
no no because uh we were in the d4
district channel and sometimes we can
hear but not all the time
okay but we didn't hear anything and i i
don't know if he uh
called this bench or he did ourself
initially we don't know that that's a
possibility as well okay
on this day did you have a hsi radio
uh i have one
in my unit that they left there a long
time ago but
battery is dead it wasn't even working
it's somewhere in my unit but it's not
it's not working
i don't even have a charger for it
in any real-time updates was directly
from agent rodriguez correct
via telephone or text correct rodriguez
and
laughter joshua okay
so based off all the knowledge that you
knew of
the dope being in the vehicle possible
firearms
um did you learn of anything else
that and the pictures being taken
anything else that occurred on that uc
deal
prior uh no
just uh being paranoid taking pictures
from the uc
right
having previous charges for drugs in
california
no that's it okay so based off of all
that that you knew um
you contacted uh montes for have to have
a secondary
correct uh i know would you have done
the traffic stop
although no based off all that that you
knew
now after talking to the agents to
ancient uh comics
uh it didn't feel right it didn't feel
right from the traffic stop
it appeared that uh the guy it sounded
like he was high on drugs
so in weapons
that didn't it didn't sound right they
didn't feel right
so that's why i test for a second
if if you don't mind a little bit later
on once we step out of here would you
allow us to look at your phone and kind
of see those messages yep that's
fine yeah yeah and along those lines you
had asked me
for copies of the emails yes and you may
already have them so
i actually don't okay so because i know
they'd be two
so those are the emails that you
requested
there they are
he said this is the first year i learned
that srt through these well
after you yeah after the incident i yes
sir
so in regards to srt's involvement it
was just roger get saying hey we're
going to have one
close by correct you didn't know the
details at all i didn't know
about the whole takedown or yeah
is it normal for you to not
uh participate in one of their briefings
prior to a traffic stop
uh it is it happens a lot yes um
because i'm just doing the traffic stuff
so i already have all the details
i know that he's gonna be passively
armed so i already have a second unit
i know he's gonna have drugs i have my
dog you know and
some experience may be searching the car
so
it happens very often a lot of times
it's just
you know but it happens something that i
don't attend to
sergeant wood never tried to tell you to
not do the truck stop uh no he's told me
to to have a second
you know these are the emails that you
provided however there's no response
from you to these
emails no no i don't think i responded
at all i don't think so okay
were you ever provided with and i know
the emails don't show up but any type of
ops plan anything like that no
was there every discussion of like
contingency plans of
the stop not stop other than if we don't
stop on them we'll do the bust
no you never even call me so as far as
you knew
you were going to be the stop nothing
else further nothing else before
correct
is there anything that we haven't asked
that you guys think is important that
maybe
one point to bring up i'm good but if
you
don't know i think you guys pretty much
covered uh
everything okay well officer palamados
like once again i
i want to thank you for coming in giving
the statement i know this is
a tough thing to process uh but i'm glad
you're safe i'm glad you're okay and
thank you
thank you thank you guys yeah did you
all want to look at the
phone yes yes okay but we can do that
okay including this