EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — New Mexico State Police say they used a high-tech license plate recognition system to arrest a man who allegedly struck and killed a bicyclist near Deming over the weekend.
At about 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23, NM State Police officers were sent out to a fatal crash involving a vehicle and a bicyclist along New Mexico Highway 11 near milepost 8.
A passing motorist had noticed debris and a bicycle in the dirt off on the shoulder of the road and stopped to check the area.
They called 911 when they saw a man — identified as 69-year-old Kevin O’Leary — who was dead near his bicycle, State Police said.
The suspect vehicle had fled the scene and there were no witnesses, State Police said.
A be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) alert was put out for a red vehicle that was suspected to have front-end damage, State Police said.
The State Police used their license plate recognition system to identify the suspect vehicle as a 2011 red Cadillac sedan.
Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection notified NMSP that a vehicle matching that description had crossed into Mexico immediately following the crash at the Columbus port of entry.
The driver of the Cadillac was later identified as 33-year-old Noel Ronquillo Jr. An arrest warrant was obtained for Ronquillo, and he was taken into custody without incident on Monday, Nov. 25 in Deming.
Ronquillo was charged with involuntary manslaughter and knowingly leaving the scene of an accident involving great bodily harm or death.
“ALPR (automatic license plate recognition) technology has been widely praised for improving law enforcement’s ability to track and capture criminals” New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler said. “In just a short time, this system identified a vehicle that was involved in a homicide, leading to an arrest. If not for this technology, this case might not have been solved so swiftly, and a dangerous offender might have still been on the street.”
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