BLOOMFIELD, N.M. – A Bloomfield police officer is recovering after he was shot during a traffic stop.

KOB 4 found out where the investigation is now, and how the officer is doing.

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office is now the lead agency investigating this shooting that left a suspect dead and an officer in critical condition.

“I understand that not everybody’s okay, but you know, I’m glad there weren’t more people hurt,” said Daniel Harris, a nearby neighbor.

This all started just before 11p.m. Monday when Bloomfield police officer, Timothy Ontiveros, conducted a traffic stop just off U.S. 64 and N. Jordan Street.

“Suspect driving the vehicle actually fired at the officer, striking him, injuring him. The second Officer responded with Officer Ontiveros returned fire, and the suspect was deceased,” said BPD Chief Philip Francisco.

Ontiveros was shot in the neck and taken to San Juan Regional Medical Center in critical condition. He was then taken to an Albuquerque hospital Wednesday.

“Anytime there’s a loss of life with our officers or a citizen, it’s a tragic thing, and our thoughts and prayers go out to all people involved. This really affects our law enforcement family, and I’m really grateful for all the partnerships we have with the law enforcement and other public safety and medical staff in the area who really helped us out during this time of need,” said Francisco.

Harris says it caught him off guard because shootings like this are not normal in the area.

“It was pretty scary. I mean, we’re close. We live close enough by to where we could hear it was pretty loud. We knew what it was. And then after that, you know, we could hear the cop sirens and everything we knew something was going on. It was rare, as intense as it was. So, we don’t normally get something like that around here,” said Harris.

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said the Office of the Medical Investigator will release the name of the suspect once next of kin have been notified.