On October 17, 2023, a traffic stop tragically escalated from an unknown threat to a deadly one, resulting in the line-of-duty death of a police lieutenant from the San Benito (Texas) Police Department.
Despite the shooting of one of their own, the law enforcement officers involved couldn’t pause to grieve. The perpetrators were still racing through their communities, recklessly firing bullets as if they were throwing candy along a parade route.
Thanks to the relentless pursuit by these officers, the criminals near our southern border were eventually apprehended. The pursuit was remarkable, with multiple officers facing high speeds and a barrage of gunfire. Notably, a Texas Ranger sergeant, who recently received the Medal of Valor, played a pivotal role in bringing the shooters to justice.
This is what happened.
The initial stop
At 4:30 p.m., a red GMC Sierra pickup was spotted speeding along a South Padre Island beach in Texas. The driver, Rogelio Martinez, was stopped, with two women and two small children in the truck, along with Rodrigo Axel Espinosa Valdez, who was riding in the front passenger seat.
The officer asked Martinez to turn off the vehicle and step behind the tailgate to speak with him. The driver complied, but after a brief exchange, Martinez began struggling with the officer. Meanwhile, Valdez slid over to the driver’s seat and started the truck. Martinez broke free from the officer’s grip, jumped into the truck bed, and, as if pre-planned, Valdez sped off from the scene.
What followed was a wild, miles-long pursuit during which the officers came under gunfire. In response to the gunfire, the officers backed off slightly but maintained the pursuit. Valdez used this opportunity to pull onto a side road, where the women and children were let out. Martinez jumped from the truck bed into the passenger seat as Valdez sped away, like a driver exiting an Indianapolis 500 pit stop.
The truck was later found abandoned.
The intense manhunt for the shooters involved a BOLO, interviews with the women as witnesses, GPS tracking via cellphones and air support.
Second contact
At 10:30 p.m., the suspects were spotted again by Lt. Milton Resendez in San Benito, Texas. This time, however, the fleeing felons were in a black Ford Expedition.
When Valdez, who was driving, and Martinez realized they had been spotted by Lt. Resendez, they opened fire. Two rounds struck the lieutenant’s vehicle, with one penetrating the squad car door and hitting Lt. Resendez in the abdomen, just below his vest. The wound proved fatal to the well-loved 30-year police veteran.
Other officers continued the pursuit. The stillness of the night was shattered by gunfire and the relentless wail of sirens, like a pack of mechanical bloodhounds hot on the trail of escaped convicts. Despite driving into live fire, the officers were undeterred, though they maintained a distance to make themselves harder targets.
A Texas Ranger closes ground
After Lt. Resendez was shot, a Texas Ranger Special Operations Sergeant joined the pursuit. He made a conscious decision that he would have to put himself in harm’s way or someone else was going to be killed.
The Ranger accelerated past the other officers and closed the gap between himself and the suspects. As he gained ground, the shooters directed their fire at him. The Ranger returned fire with his patrol rifle through his own windshield, managing to flatten the left rear tire of the fleeing vehicle. Despite this, the driver continued to speed away at up to 100 mph.
The determined Ranger closed in further and expertly executed a pursuit immobilization technique, spinning the Ford Expedition and pinning it against a fence.
Both suspects fled on foot, but the Ranger Sergeant quickly apprehended Valdez and handcuffed him. Martinez, however, managed to escape the scene, evading the initial ground search.
Capturing Martinez
With Valdez arrested and secured, the same Ranger Sergeant continued his search for the second suspect, entering an alley he believed Martinez had passed through. At that moment, a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter hovering overhead spotted Martinez in a fenced yard near the Sergeant.
Armed with this information, the Ranger, despite the very real danger Martinez posed, climbed over the fence and into the yard. In the darkness, he moved stealthily to the spot where Martinez had taken cover between a water heater and a residence. The Sergeant swiftly sprang into action, denying the suspect any chance to react by immediately dragging him out of hiding. Martinez was quickly restrained and handcuffed.
It was over.
Conclusion
Having written about the Texas Rangers of old in two volumes of “Law Dogs, Great Cops in American History,” I can’t help but reflect on how this Texas Ranger Sergeant and his valiant, multi-agency team remind me of the legendary Texas Ranger Captain James Hughes and his Company D, who relentlessly similarly pursued justice.
The officers involved in this pursuit, along with the brave Texas Ranger, embodied the spirit of the Texas Ranger motto, which states: “No man in the wrong can stand up against a fellow that’s in the right and keeps on a-comin’.”
