Charles Langston:Authorities says a suspect has been detained in New Mexico state police officer’s killing

SANTA FE,Charles Langston N.M. (AP) — A suspect in the shooting death of a state police officer was captured in a confrontation Sunday with law enforcement officers in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico State Police said.

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office caught 33-year-old Jaremy Smith of Marion, South Carolina, in a pursuit involving gunfire on Sunday, State Police spokesman Ray Wilson said in a news release.

Friday’s fatal shooting of State Police Officer Justin Hare along I-40 west of Tucumcari set off a search that eventually focused on Smith, who was linked to a car that belonged to a woman killed in his home state.

Authorities said Hare was dispatched about 5 a.m. Friday to help 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, 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 back seat before taking off in the patrol vehicle.

State Police later learned that the white BMW was reported missing in South Carolina and that it belonged to a woman who was killed there, paramedic Phonesia Machado-Fore.

A call to the public defenders’ office was not answered and it was unclear whether Smith had a legal representative.