New Mexico
NMSP release details on capture of Fort Sumner shooting suspects
DE BACA COUNTY, N.M. (KFDA) – New Mexico State Police have released new details on the capture of both Fort Sumner shooting suspects.
On Feb. 23, NMSP Investigations Bureau agents were requested to investigate an officer-involved shooting involving a NMSP Sergeant on US Highway 285, south of Vaughn in Guadalupe County, New Mexico.
Agents learned that the NMSP Sergeant conducted a traffic stop on a black Kia Sportage on US Highway 285, near mile marker 185, after learning the car was reportedly stolen.
Officials say during the stop, the female driver identified as 26-year-old Makaela Johnson, exited the car. As the Sergeant was placing Johnson in handcuffs, the male passenger, identified as 40-year-old Jovan Martinez, exited the stolen car with a rifle and fired at the Sergeant.
Police say Johnson ran back to the stolen car while still handcuffed and entered the passenger seat as the Sergeant took cover behind his police unit and returned fire with his duty weapon.
Martinez and Johnson fled from the scene and officers lost sight of the car.
While responding to the incident, NMSP officers encountered a couple near mile marker 166, who reported that their car had just been stolen at gunpoint.
The couple stated that Martinez and Johnson were standing in the roadway and Martinez fired a least one shot at the ground, forcing the couple to stop.
According to officials, the couple was ordered out of their car, which was a grey Kia K5 passenger vehicle.
Martinez and Johnson then took the second Kia and continued fleeing.
Officials say the original stolen Kia Sportage involved in the traffic stop was later located near the intersection of US Highway 285 and New Mexico State Highway 247.
The car left the roadway and drove through two barbed wire fences before coming to a rest in an open field.
According to police, the second stolen Kia K5 was found abandoned east of the intersection of River Road and Lone Wolf Road, south of Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
On Feb. 25, following a two-day manhunt, Martinez and Johnson were located hiding in a shed and taken into custody outside of Fort Sumner.
They were booked without incident on the following charges:
jovan Martinez:
- Attempt to commit a felony, to WIT: first degree murder(willful or deliberate)
- Aggravated assault upon a Peace Officer (deadly weapon)
- Receipt, transportation or possession of a firearm or destructive device by a felon
- Conspiracy to commit receiving or transferring stolen motor vehicles
- Armed robbery
- Harboring a felon
- Aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer (no injury or great bodily harm)
Makaela Johnson:
- Conspiracy to commit first degree murder (willful or deliberate)
- Conspiracy to commit aggravated assault upon a Peace Officer (deadly weapon)
- Conspiracy to commit armed robbery
- Harboring a felon
- Receiving or transferring stolen motor vehicles
- Escape or attempt to escape from Peace Officer
- Larceny ($250 or less)
Officials say no officers were injured during this incident.
This incident remains under investigation by the New Mexico State Investigations Bureau.
The identity of the NMSP Sergeant will not be released until interviews are completed. The Sergeant has been placed on standard administrative leave.
New Mexico State Police act solely as factfinders in their investigation and conduct an unbiased and impartial investigation. In officer involved shootings, NMSP thoroughly documents the scene, collects evidence, and interviews officers, subjects, and witnesses.
The New Mexico State Police does not determine whether an officer’s actions were justified, this determination rests solely with the district attorney’s office.
Copyright 2026 KFDA. All rights reserved.
Grant’s Thursday Evening Forecast
Showers and thunderstorms will continue in eastern New Mexico tonight into Friday. Breezy winds will bring an elevated fire danger in the western half of the state.
Thunderstorms are firing up Thursday afternoon along and east of New Mexico’s central mountain chain while gusty south winds over 30 mph are driving an elevated fire danger across western parts of the state. Storms will continue spreading across eastern New Mexico through this evening, bringing locally heavy rainfall, lightning, small hail, and gusty winds. The winds will weaken later tonight, but showers and thunderstorms will keep going across eastern New Mexico overnight into early Friday morning.
A few spotty storms will redevelop Friday afternoon across eastern New Mexico, with a couple near the Texas state line capable of turning strong to severe. At the same time, breezy southwest winds will ramp back up across western New Mexico, with gusts over 35 mph creating another round of elevated fire danger. Storms will push east out of New Mexico Friday evening while winds gradually ease overnight.
Quieter and drier weather takes over this weekend. Temperatures Saturday afternoon will cool a few degrees but still stay near average for late May. Breezy afternoon winds will continue Saturday before lighter winds and warmer temperatures return Sunday.
Moisture will start building back into eastern New Mexico Monday, bringing a slight chance for thunderstorms near the Texas state line. Monday will also be the hottest day of the warming trend statewide. More moisture spreads into the eastern half of the state Tuesday, increasing storm chances along and east of the Rio Grande Valley by afternoon. Even deeper moisture arrives statewide by Wednesday and Thursday, fueling more widespread showers and thunderstorms through the middle of next week.
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Skies are partly to mostly clear with most similar or slightly milder than yesterday. Winds are a little breezy occasionally with the highest humidity values mostly from out east and to the north.
Air temperatures in the north are mostly starting off in the 30s to the low 50s. Elsewhere to the south, air temperatures are mostly ranging from around the high 30s to the low 60s.
Many areas from eastern New Mexico to the Pecos River Valley area will range from the high 60s to the 80s from north to south from high to low elevation. The northern higher elevations will mostly range from the high 40s to near 60°, while the northern valley floors to western and central areas will mostly range from the high 70s to the low 90s.
Southerly upper-level winds, in combination to the low-level moisture still lingering around the northern high elevations to out east, will lead to few thunderstorms capable of producing brief bouts of heavy rain, small hail, some lightning, & gusty conditions.
Ridging in the jet stream will then allow for clearer conditions, drier air, and for temperatures to rebound for the remainder of the week. However, slightly more thunderstorms will form for some eastern and mountainous areas late in the week, resulting in outflow-southeasterly winds to occasionally pick up.
Even hotter air returns late this weekend into early next week before thunderstorms are more likely to form next week.
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