Two killed during police chase

Officers fired at truck, which then crashed into tractor-trailer

Two men fleeing the wrong way on Interstate 40 were killed after a New Mexico State Police officer opened fire on their truck, which continued on and crashed into a tractor-trailer during a chase near Gallup around midnight Friday.

State Police spokesman Lt. Mark Soriano said the two men were ejected from the truck. He did not say whether the crash or the gunfire killed the men.

“That is still under investigation,” he said. Soriano said none of the others involved, including the officers, and the driver and passenger in the tractor-trailer, were injured.

He did not identify the deceased or officers involved.

“This information is preliminary, and the investigation is still active and ongoing,” he said.

Soriano said the incident began around 11:55 p.m. Friday when Gallup police responded to two men “brandishing a firearm” inside a truck at the Redwood Lodge Motel.

He said that the two men drove around the officers, nearly hitting one of their vehicles and that police gave chase on N.M. 118. The driver turned the headlights on and off, traveling in the opposing lanes of traffic, before getting onto I-40, heading east.

“The passenger began throwing objects from the bed of the truck at officers,” Soriano said in the State Police news release. Eventually, “The driver of the Dodge (truck) crossed the median of Interstate 40 and began traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes, where a Gallup Police supervisor terminated the pursuit.”

Meanwhile, Soriano said a State Police sergeant who was parked in the median of I-40 “fired at least one shot” from a shotgun at the truck as it drove by in the wrong lanes of traffic.

After the shot, the truck crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer and both men were ejected. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

“The identification of the male suspects and officers will not be released by the New Mexico State Police at this time,” Soriano said.