Witness describes seeing LCPD officer stabbed, killed

WARNING: The following article contains graphic details.

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- ABC-7 spoke to a man who showed up moments after the deadly stabbing of Las Cruces Police Department Officer Jonah Hernandez. ABC-7 obtained the 911 calls, and we also spoke to a witness who made one of those calls.

"This guy is beating up this cop," another person who called into 911 that night reported. "My boyfriend just shot him... Please hurry.”

A man says he was driving when he heard gunshots. He stopped.

“I see two bodies on the floor," the man told ABC-7 in an interview weeks after the night Officer Hernandez was stabbed in the neck. "And I'm thinking, this is this is unreal. I don't know what's going on. Let me get out of the car and check it out.”

He says he saw Officer Hernandez bleeding.

The body of the suspect, Armando Silva, was about 10 feet away from Officer Hernandez. 

Police say a witness shot Silva three times. 

“So I get on the phone and call 911 and I see a bystander coming to aid to give medical aid to the officer.”

The witness then described the moment he realized Officer Hernandez was still alive.

“He was still alive. When I saw him, he was he was still moving. And so I wish I could have done more, but, you know, that's that's all I could do. Just call for help.”

In the 911 call, the witness described to dispatchers what he saw.

“It's the parking lot and there's some people to his aid right now. It looks like he shot suspect. And there's people. He's awake. He's moving."

The witness says there was a lot of blood.

“The bystander, he looked like he was in control," the witness told ABC-7 afterward. "You know, maybe he's been around this kind of stuff before, but he was applying pressure to the officer's wound, which was like around his neck.”

The witness says it was a tense moment.

“I was just praying at that moment while I was on the phone with the dispatcher. You know, I'm just saying, Lord, this officer's life is in Your hands.”

He says other police officers arrived about 15 seconds after he hung up. 

“It was like a swarm of bees. I mean, officers were just coming left and right. They had the streets blocked off. I mean, the fire trucks came and and the ambulance came... I honestly thought he was going to make it. You know, I just the amount of help that I saw around him was extraordinary."

He said his perspective of life changed when he found out Officer Hernandez died.

“It broke my heart. You know, I said this is you know, it's an officer doing his job, you know, just making his daily rounds... It's sad that this happened, but it kind of brings me closer to my family just to know that, you know, you're not guaranteed life when you walk out there. You know, just love your family.”

Despite wishing to remain anonymous, the witness told me he finds comfort in knowing the community has come together in assisting Officer Hernandez's family as they deal with this tragedy.