An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer was killed Sunday morning, while attempting to stop a suspect who had stolen his Ford pickup truck.
James Manuel Magdaleno Jr., 33, and Felix Brandon Cruz, 31, were loading their belongings into a 2009 Ford F-150 in the valet area of the Flamingo shortly before 11 a.m. Sunday. Magdaleno, a CHP officer from Visalia, was in Las Vegas for his bachelor party to celebrate his upcoming wedding, reports the Fresno Bee.
While the two men loaded the truck, 29-year-old James Robert Montgomery jumped into the driver's seat and began to drive away.
Magdaleno chased the vehicle on foot, shouting that he was a police officer. He caught up with the truck when it stopped for traffic and jumped into the bed, with Cruz. He continued to yell at Montgomery to stop.
Montgomery blew through several red lights, struck construction cones, and was hit by a Ford Escape near the Flamingo and Valley View intersection. Magdaleno was thrown from the truck and killed. Cruz was transported to the hospital with critical injuries, reports KTNV.