EDDY COUNTY — An Artesia Police Department officer was killed Friday morning in a two-vehicle wreck on U.S. 285 north of Artesia.
Around 10:45 a.m. Friday, the New Mexico State Police (NMSP) were alerted to a wreck involving a 2018 Ford F-150 and a 2006 International tractor-trailer on U.S. 285 near mile marker 77.
The initial investigation indicates the F-150, driven by 42-year-old Thomas Wade Frazier, a corporal with the Artesia Police Department, was traveling north on U.S. 285. For reasons still under investigation, the F-150 struck the rear of the tractor-trailer, which was also northbound and slowing to turn into the Creekside Dairy, located at 7683 Roswell Hwy.
Frazier sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene by the Office of the Medical Investigator.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, a 20-year-old male from Dexter, was uninjured in the wreck.
This wreck is under investigation by the New Mexico State Police Uniform Bureau, with assistance from the New Mexico State Police Crash Reconstruction Unit and Drone Unit.
Frazier was born in Virginia and graduated from Strasburg High School in Strasburg, Va., in 1997. He became a law enforcement officer in 2005 in his home state, where he served with the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office from May 2004 until February 2016. He was also a member of the FEMA Firefighting Team and the Woodstock, Va., Rescue Squad.
Frazier began his career with the Artesia Police Department in February 2016 as a corporal. He received a transfer to the Criminal Investigations Division and was also a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Task Force agent. Additionally, he was chief of the Sun Country Volunteer Fire Department.
He married his wife, Allison, in 2012, and the couple had three children: Kamryn, 7, Caden, 6, and Carter, 4. He was an active member of his church and supporter of functions such as Shop with a Hero.
“His wife and children and his APD family will miss him dearly,” said Cmdr. Lindell Smith of the APD. “The service arrangements have not been made. APD will release them as appropriate.”
