Cops and Courts 11/23

One of two Carlsbad police officers hospitalized after a shootout is a former Portales officer.

Officer Eric Jameson, with Portales PD in 2001 and 2002, suffered multiple gunshot wounds in Thursday night’s confrontation with a suspect he was chasing.

Another officer, Susan Kym Redman, was in critical condition on Saturday morning. The man they were chasing was killed in the shooting.

Jameson was in stable condition, officials said.

Portales Police Capt. Lonnie Berry said Jameson started his career as an officer in Portales where he worked for 10 months until February of 2002. Berry said Portales police think highly of Jameson and have decided to take up a collection to help cover expenses related to the shooting.

“Our thoughts are with his family,” Berry said. “It’s always a shock when you here another police officer has been shot ... but even more so when you find out he was someone you worked with.”

“We all consider him to be a friend.”

The dead man was identified as Thomas Michael Cook, 36, of Carlsbad.

Cook’s childhood friend and roommate for the last month said Cook wanted the officers to kill him.

‘‘For the past couple of days, Thomas kept asking me that if something should happen to him, would I take care of the things that needed to be taken care of,’’ Harvey Elizondo said. ‘‘I didn’t know what he was getting at then, but now it is all clear. I think he was planning to do this — have the cops kill him.’’

State police are investigating, state police Lt. Robert San Roman said.

The Associated Press reported the automobile chase began after police were sent to a neighborhood shortly before 10:20 p.m. Thursday concerning a suspicious person and vehicle in the area, police said.

When Redman tried to stop the vehicle, the driver sped away. The pursuit ended near the city’s Riverwalk Recreation Center, where a patrol car driven by Jameson and Cook’s vehicle collided, Carlsbad police said.

The shootout occurred when the pursuit stopped, San Roman said.

Both officers were shot several times with bullets from Cook’s handgun, and Cook was hit by their return fire, police said.

Both officers were airlifted to Lubbock hospitals, where they underwent surgery Friday, said Lt. Jim Boutelle of the Carlsbad Police Department.

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Several Curry County Magistrate Court cases that have been pending since the summer have been postponed again until December.

n Warren Nuckols Jr., owner of Clovis’ Quick Stop convenience store on the corner of 13th and Thornton, is still fighting charges of selling tobacco to minors in connection with a June 11 tobacco sting operation conducted by the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. Nuckols’ case has been rescheduled a number of times and is now scheduled to go to a Dec. 5 jury trial. Jury selection is Dec. 2.

n Greg Hromas, whose pit bull “Buddy’ was confiscated by animal control officers after sheriff’s deputies said it tried to attack them, has pleaded not guilty to a number of animal-related charges. Magistrate Judge Doug Miller agreed June 8 to combine one citation of animals running at large and two citations of vicious animals at large into a single trial, and appointed a public defender to represent Hromas.

Hromas was scheduled to have his pretrial conference on Aug. 16 but repeated problems have delayed the pretrial conference.

The latest pretrial conference date was Tuesday, but that’s been postponed until Dec. 16.

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A crash last weekend west of Fort Sumner led to the death of a passenger and serious injuries to the driver, New Mexico State Police reported.

Richard Oliver, 18, of Albuquerque, died and Stephanie Vogel, 17, of Estancia, was seriously injured when the vehicle in which they were riding rolled over about 22 miles west of Fort Sumner about 9 a.m. on Nov. 15.

Oliver was the starting center for the Manzano High School football team, and the son of an Albuquerque police officer, according to The Associated Press.

State police said the eastbound vehicle initially drifted off the highway to the right and then veered left as Vogel overcorrected, causing the vehicle to roll.

Cops and Courts was compiled by Freedom Newspapers staff and The Associated Press. CNJ Staff Writer Darrell Todd Maurina can be contacted at 763-6991 or:

[email protected]