LAGUNA, New Mexico — This shocking video shows the moment a New Mexico state police officer is shot during a traffic stop, but miraculously survive and fire back at the fleeing gunman before giving pursuit.
The footage shows Officer Sharron Duran get hit as she approaches the vehicle of Robert Benjamin Nelson, 28, of Scottsdale, Arizona for tailgating on the highway in September.
As Duran approached the passenger side of the truck, Nelson opens fire without warning, Nelson, squeezing off three rounds through his tinted, rolled-up passenger side window, police said..
After being struck in the hands and her bulletproof vest, Duran manages to return fire at the suspect as he pulls away. “I fell back because he hit me,” she explained. “I aimed at the headrest and started to fire my weapon.”
Despite her injuries, Duran returned to her vehicle and gave chase, bloodied hands on the wheel. A brief pursuit followed.
“I’m in pursuit,” you can hear her saying on the radio, “I’ve been hit, I’ve been hit.”
A short time later, Nelson pulls over on the side of the highway and gets out of his truck, but this time the officer kept her distance. “I want you to walk towards me with your hands up,” she yelled at Nelson. “You move, I will [expletive] shoot.”
A federal search warrant said Nelson pulled over and gave himself up because he had called his parents while fleeing to tell them what had happened. His dad had told him to pull over. Nelson was taken into custody without further incident.
As officers searched Nelson’s truck, they found the gun, along with his cat in a crate right under the line of fire. Meanwhile, Nelson’s father, who had circled back to the scene, said he couldn’t believe what his son had just done. “I’m just thankful the officer is OK,” he said. “Stupid, stupid kid.”
Duran was treated and released from a local hospital. Later on, she said her motivation for fighting her way through the pain was that, “I’m not going to let this person take me away from the family and the people that I love.”.
Nelson faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery on a police officer, shooting from a vehicle, and resisting, evading, or obstructing an officer.
