Arizona man sentenced to 30 years in shooting of federal task force officer

An Arizona man who opened fire on a New Mexico State Police officer during an Interstate 40 traffic stop was sentenced to serve 30 years in federal prison this week.

Robert Benjamin Nelson, 31, pleaded guilty to the charge of attempted murder of then-officer Sharron Duran on Sept. 12, 2020. Duran was assigned as a Task Force Officer with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.

Nelson in January had gone to trial in January, but it ended in a hung jury.

Duran, who was working on I-40 with her police dog partner, pulled Nelson over for following too closely to an RV in front of him and having no expiration date on his truck’s registration. He had been traveling behind an RV driven by his parents as they drove to a funeral in Kansas.

As Duran approached the passenger side of Nelson’s truck, Nelson fired three shots at her from the driver’s seat.

Bullets and shrapnel hit her hands, which she had raised to protect her face, and she fell to the ground. Nelson then fled east on the interstate as Duran got back in her marked patrol unit and pursued him.

She managed to get Nelson to stop the truck again, but during the pursuit he had drawn and readied an AK-47-style rifle.

So, Duran waited for the arrival of two Laguna Pueblo police officers, who responded to the emergency. Nelson was taken into custody without incident.

The attack could have been fatal had the bullets not struck Duran’s hands, prosecutors maintained. Duran sustained permanent injuries to a finger and both hands. Shrapnel to her eye from the shooting requires her to wear eyeglasses, court records show.

The motive for the shooting was initially a mystery, given that Nelson had no outstanding warrants, no illegal contraband in his truck and no criminal history.

Nelson eventually contended he thought Duran was acting suspicious after stopping him and that she planned to kill him, court records show.

In his plea agreement in March, Nelson conceded he had been wrong.

“... I intentionally shot at her multiple times with a revolver, trying to kill her, because I mistakenly believed that she meant me harm. My belief ... was incorrect,” he stated in the agreement.

For instance, he thought she was taking an inordinate amount of time approaching his truck after she pulled him over the first time. And he believed she was getting ready to draw her gun and fire on him, but instead she was doing a “pat check” of her equipment.

Nelson received the maximum penalty under the charges of attempted murder of a federal agent and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

Upon his release from prison, Nelson will be subject to four years of supervised release.

Duran, meanwhile, has been promoted to sergeant and is no longer assigned to the Homeland Security task force. She couldn’t be reached for comment on Thursday.