May 22—Just after noon Wednesday, Charlene Ashe and her two young daughters pressed small pieces of paper against a newly carved name on a stone memorial honoring fallen police officers from across the state. They rubbed yellow sidewalk chalk on the paper and made copies of the indentation.
The name that appeared was Anthony Dale Ferguson — an officer with the Alamogordo Police Department, Ashe’s best friend and the father of her children, who was killed in the line of duty in July.
Ferguson was “a great man who gave it his all,” Ashe said.
He was one of three fallen officers honored during a ceremony in the courtyard of New Mexico’s Law Enforcement Academy in Santa Fe.
Ferguson was shot and killed on July 15 while chasing a man on foot in Alamogordo. Police said the man turned and shot at Ferguson during the chase.
The man, Dominic De La O, 27, is charged with first-degree murder. The trial is scheduled for November.
Meanwhile, the Alamogordo community has been wracked with grief, Ashe said, adding that she became close friends with Ferguson after they both started working for the Alamogordo Police Department in 2011.
Ferguson helped Ashe and her wife, Ashley Rahn-Ashe, give birth to their two little girls, she said, and he helped raise the girls as their father.
Ferguson’s daughters, Remi Ashe, 7, and Paxtyn Ashe, 8, wore T-shirts that matched their mothers’, with photos of Ferguson on the front and a message on the back: “And we know you’re with the you are angels, right where you belong. Because you were one for us, you left a legacy of love.”
“He was just a great person,” Ashe said. “Every time there was a lemonade stand or a kid selling chocolate, he would buy them up and bring it all back to the department.”
Ferguson’s father, Danny Ferguson, traveled from his home in Nevada to attend the ceremony in his son’s honor. He sat in the front row and wore a vest that identified him as a Vietnam War veteran.
“He was an officer for 11 years and he loved it,” his father said, adding that his family was “devastated.”
A tent was filled with hundreds of people for the ceremony, with the crowd largely made up of law enforcement officers, officers’ families and Department of Public Safety employees. Lt. Governor Howie Morales made a proclamation; Attendees included New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler, First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altweis and Second Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman.
Department of Public Safety Cabinet Secretary Jason Bowie said some officers had traveled from out of state — as far as the New York Police Department — to pay tribute to New Mexico’s fallen officers. Bowie noted how each officer’s death in the line of duty impacts the community.
“National Police Week and ceremonies like today serve as powerful reminders of the extraordinary sacrifices our law enforcement officers have made,” Bowie said. “We honor and pay tribute to our heroes: men and women who dedicate their lives to serving their communities.”
The three officers honored at the ceremony – and whose names were added to the memorial wall – were Ferguson, former Alamogordo Officer James Sides and Curry County Sheriff Michael Reeves.
All three died in 2023. With the addition of their names, the memorial wall contains the names of 220 officers who died in the line of duty in New Mexico dating back more than 100 years.
Sides died Aug. 14 from a brain injury resulting from a gunshot wound he suffered while responding to a crime in 1984, according to an obituary published by Alamogordo Funeral Home.
Reeves was found dead in his Santa Fe hotel room in December while in town training at the Law Enforcement Academy; According to a news report from ABC 7, the Curry County Sheriff’s Office said there was no foul play. He was elected sheriff in 2022 and has worked in law enforcement for more than 40 years at multiple agencies in New Mexico.
Already this year, two New Mexico officers have died in the line of duty. Las Cruces Police Officer Jonah Hernandez was stabbed and killed in February, while State Trooper Justin Hare was shot near Tucumcari in March while trying to help a stranded driver with a flat tire.
