Police Murder Within 3 sec. Murder of Officer D. Jarrott in New Mexico

6 months ago
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Jarrott was assisting Homeland Security Investigations agents when he was shot to death by suspected drug trafficker Omar Cueva, 39, during a traffic stop along Interstate 10 east of Deming.
Cueva led authorities on a chase that ended in a gunfight in Las Cruces that left Cueva dead and another officer injured.

Jarrott, a 28-year-old father of four, was the first State Police officer shot and killed in the line of duty in more than 30 years.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed in the case on behalf of Jarrott’s widow and children, against the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and the U.S. government, alleging that both HSI and Jarrott’s superiors at State Police were negligent and did not warn the officer of Cueva’s dangerousness beforehand.
In the federal suit, Judge Riggs sided with the U.S. government.
“The Federal Tort Claims Act waives the United States’ sovereign immunity for certain tort claims,” Riggs wrote in his ruling. “However, Defendant asserts that sovereign immunity has not been waived here due to the ‘discretionary function’ exception.”

Riggs added, “The Court will dismiss this case without prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”
Eric Loman, an attorney representing Jarrott’s family, said they are discussing the case with his clients, but “no decision has been made on what’s going to happen next.”
The state and federal lawsuits were initially filed by Sam Bregman but were handed off to other attorneys when Bregman became the District Attorney for Bernalillo County.
An investigation by State Police found HSI agents made a plan to arrest Cueva after he sold large amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine to an undercover agent in Deming.
In the hopes of protecting the identity of their informant, HSI agents asked for State Police assistance in detaining Cueva as he made his way to a drug buy in Las Cruces on Feb. 4.
Jarrott was told by a superior, Sgt. Mark Madrid, to be on the lookout for the truck Cueva was driving. When he spotted the truck headed east on I-10, Jarrott pulled Cueva over.
Within minutes, Jarrott had been fatally shot .
Former State Police Chief Tim Johnson later told Bregman, in a deposition, that Jarrott should have never come into contact with Cueva, who was using meth, known to be carrying a rifle, and had previously said he “wasn’t going back to jail.”
Johnson said at the time, “I think some mistakes were made by everybody.”

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