On April 8, 2021, a high-speed chase across the plains of New Mexico came to a tragic end for 30-year-old Jock Waylon Thacker. The day began with a New Mexico State Police officer attempting to pull Thacker over for speeding on Interstate 40. Rather than stopping, Thacker, a resident of Reeves, Louisiana, fled, initiating a pursuit that would involve the De Baca County Sheriff's Office and the Santa Rosa City Police.
The chase continued until Thacker's vehicle was finally stopped near
Fort Sumner. As law enforcement officers approached the car, the situation took a grim turn when Thacker inflicted a fatal gunshot wound to himself. His death was subsequently ruled a suicide, and as a result, no arrests were made in connection with the incident.
This was not Thacker's first encounter with law enforcement. In 2010, at the age of 19, he was arrested for the robbery of Mountain Valley Bank in Meeker, Colorado. In that incident, he had passed a note to a teller demanding money and was apprehended shortly after. Funeral services for Thacker were held on April 15, 2021, at Pine Ridge Baptist Church, followed by his burial at Union Hill Cemetery in Glenmora, Louisiana.
