Report: Officer's alleged killer threatened others

The man charged with killing New Mexico State Police Patrolman Justin Hare in March threatened healthcare workers while he was being treated for injuries after his capture.

Jaremy Smith, 33, of South Carolina, also threatened a former girlfriend and a travel companion before Hare was killed. And he is accused of entering an empty ranch house near Newkirk, where he ate food and stole ammunition, cash and a pickup truck before being shot and apprehended by police in Albuquerque a day later.

Those details and others were detailed in more than 550 pages of documents compiled by State Police during the investigation of Hare's slaying on Interstate 40 west of Tucumcari.

The Quay County Sun obtained the records through a public records request.

Smith is accused of shooting Hare three times in the head or neck after the officer stopped to help him with a flat tire on I-40 west of Tucumcari shortly before 5 a.m. March 15.

After the attack, Smith is accused of hijacking Hare's vehicle, then dumping the patrolman by the side of a frontage road several miles west. Smith later crashed Hare's vehicle into a fence and a small tree in the median and fled on foot.

Hare died of his wounds at Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari about 2 1/2 hours after being shot.

Smith remains in custody in Albuquerque on a litany of federal charges. He also faces charges in South Carolina after being accused of killing a paramedic and stealing her car - the same vehicle Smith drove before the I-40 attack on Hare.

Threats in hospital

Two days after Hare died, Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies apprehended Smith in Albuquerque after a brief shootout. A clerk tipped off police after seeing him make a purchase in a nearby store. Deputies shot Smith in the arm, and he was treated at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.

Several officers kept watch over Smith at the hospital and one wrote in his report that hospital staff said Smith threatened them.

Another officer reported: "Upon my arrival on this date the UNM Hospital staff advised (Smith) said he would kill everyone in the hospital if he could get his hands on a gun.

"The hospital staff claimed he said this on another shift but just wanted us to be aware because they were not comfortable being alone with him in his room."

Smith told at least two officers at the hospital he did not shoot Hare, that there was somebody else with him. Video footage from Hare's patrol vehicle indicated just one person was in the car that Smith drove.

Another officer said Smith talked "about his time out in the desert while he was hiding."

Ex-girlfriend

Officers found a cellphone near Hare's crashed vehicle that was traced to Cheyenne Atwood of Albuquerque, described as a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend of Smith's.

During an interview with state police, Atwood said she ended a three- to five-month relationship with Smith after an altercation where they argued in a gas station and in her car, where he pulled at the steering wheel as she drove.

She said she dropped him off at the Albuquerque airport on Feb. 29. Atwood said Smith wouldn't be allowed in her house without a police escort.

"Cheyenne mentioned that she did not want to be with a man who would raise his voice at her," the report stated.

Albuquerque police responded to a domestic violence complaint from Atwood against Smith on Feb. 27.

Atwood said her parents "were not fond" of Smith during a time he visited her in Albuquerque.

"She said that he had mentioned during his stay that if she ever left him, he would kill her," the report stated.

"Cheyenne's parents were unhappy with Jaremy's comment right in front of them."

A few hours before Hare's shooting, Smith tried to call Atwood, but she did not answer.

Atwood's family, fearing Smith, stayed in Santa Fe during the manhunt.

Travel companion

The last person known to have seen Smith before the shooting was an acquaintance, Joshua Johnson, the records show.

According to an FBI cellphone tracer, Johnson was traveling with Smith in Texas on March 14 before Johnson began to head back to South Carolina.

Texas officers performed a traffic stop on Johnson's vehicle outside Tyler, Texas.

Johnson told an officer he had been with Smith "but not by choice." Johnson said Smith held him at gunpoint and forced him to go with him.

"He said he got away by faking an injury and had an ambulance pick him up to escape Mr. Smith," the report stated. "Mr. Johnson said he hasn't spoken to or seen Mr. Smith since then."

Newkirk burglary

Three days after Hare's killing, state police were summoned by Patrick Romo, who had returned from out of state to find his ranch home near Newkirk in disarray.

"Patrick stated he believes Jaremy Smith was inside his residence," the officer wrote in his report.

Romo said when he was gone, someone had entered his home, prepared a pan of bacon, ate two cans of tuna, bent two cooking pans and damaged a couch.

Romo said the burglar also had stolen a pair of boots, shirts, a firefighter's radio, 150 rounds of ammunition, about $100 in change from two jars and a set of keys for a Ford Ranger parked at the home. The burglar left behind a dirty sock and a bloodstain on one of Romo's shirts, the report shows.

Bryce Duggard, a caretaker for the home when Romo was away, told police earlier that someone had stolen the Ranger and apparently had crashed it through a gate leading to the residence. Romo said he had left the home unlocked.

Romo's home was about two miles from the home of Cindy Harrison and Don Massey off Waller Road near Cuervo, who reported to police after the Hare shooting they saw a black man running through their pasture and heard two gunshots. They said the man hopped over a fence and ran northwest.

After officers captured Smith in Albuquerque, Romo's Ranger was found about a block away. Video surveillance footage from a home in the neighborhood showed Smith and the truck.

Other homicide

Smith also has been charged with killing a South Carolina paramedic, Phonesia Machado-Fore.

According to state police via information obtained from South Carolina authorities, Smith broke into Machado-Fore's apartment, stole and sold several firearms and stole her white BMW car.

Smith, also known as Jaremy Gillian, lived across the hallway in the same apartment complex and had a relationship with Emily Bailes, Machado-Fore's roommate.

Machado-Fore's BMW was the vehicle Smith drove when one of its tires went flat on I-40 west of Tucumcari the morning of March 15. Hare stopped behind the vehicle to help the driver, then was ambushed.

Machado-Fore's body was found a few days later. She had been dumped in another South Carolina county, shot in the head.

Near the scene of Hare's crashed patrol vehicle, officers found a jacket with a "Fore" nametag and "Florence County EMS," where Machado-Fore worked.