Video: Man arrested for killing Alamogordo officer was shot by police in January

Ryan Laughlin | KOB

[anvplayer video=”5185836″ station=”998122″]

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. – The man accused of killing Alamogordo police officer Anthony Ferguson had another violent run-in with police earlier this year.

Now, for the first time, we are seeing the dramatic video showing how that police chase ended.

KOB 4 talked with the district attorney in Otero County, and he explained why he was investigating the officers’ actions in this case.

The police chase ended at a car wash where surveillance video captured Dominic De La O’s January arrest clearly.

Key says his office reviewed this case to determine if police were justified with what happens next.

“A couple of police officers engaged him, with the intent – obviously – to arrest him on the warrant. He struggled. A gun was exhibited in a manner that precipitated the police officer shooting him,” said Otero County District Attorney Scot Key. 

De La O was hit by a police car, and the video clearly shows a gun in his hand. When he hits the ground he quickly points the gun at his own head.

After officer Robert Brown stops his car from rolling away, Sergeant Richard Rincon deploys a taser and officers move in. 

De La O refuses to drop the gun and says, “I’m going to shoot myself.”

They wrestle, and officer brown has his gun to De La O’s back, and then he shoots him twice. 

“While we hate to use the term, it was a ‘good shoot,’ as they say,” said Key. “Certainly, the movements of the defendant would put a reasonable police officer in fear.”

De La O was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“It’s my understanding, that he walked away from the hospital,” Key said. 

He later successfully argued he wasn’t getting proper health care in jail, and was released. A month later, Alamogordo police officer Anthony Ferguson was shot and killed.

“Of course, it didn’t stop him from living his life and doing what he was doing. So the injuries didn’t prevent the bad stuff,” said Key.

The case against De La O for Ferguson’s death is supposed to go to a grand jury next week. It will decide if there’s enough evidence for murder charges.

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