Fallen law enforcement officers recognized

SANTA FE -- Hundreds came out Wednesday to honor three fallen law enforcement officers during a ceremony in the courtyard of New Mexico’s Law Enforcement Academy in Santa Fe.

Those honored were:

• Curry County Sheriff Mike Reeves

• Anthony Dale Ferguson, an officer with the Alamogordo Police Department

• and former Alamogordo Officer James Sides

All three died in 2023. Their names were added to a memorial wall that now includes 220 officers who have died on duty in New Mexico going back more than 100 years.

Reeves died in his Santa Fe hotel room in December while he was in town attending training at the Law Enforcement Academy. He had been elected sheriff in 2022 and spent more than 40 years working in law enforcement at multiple New Mexico agencies.

Ferguson was shot and killed while chasing a man on foot in Alamogordo on July 15. Police have said Dominic De La O, 27, turned around and fired upon Ferguson during the chase. He faces a charge of first-degree murder, with a trial scheduled for November.

Sides died on Aug. 14 from a brain injury that stemmed from a gunshot wound he suffered while responding to a crime in 1984, according to an obituary published by Alamogordo Funeral Home.

This year has already seen two New Mexico officers die in the line of duty. Las Cruces police Officer Jonah Hernandez was stabbed and killed in February, while state police Officer Justin Hare was shot and killed in March near Tucumcari while trying to help a stranded driver with a flat tire.