Governor honors policeman, firefighter

Robert Duran disarmed trouble with a grin — and the ability to use words as a shield.

"He had the gift of gab," said Kyle Elliot, Duran's longtime law enforcement partner and onetime police academy classmate. "The verbal judo, being able to talk people down who were agitated or angry or violent. He always used his brain first. We would always say, 'Your biggest weapon is your brain.' "

Duran's intellect, humor and heart made him a natural for public service, friends of the late Santa Fe police officer said Thursday, little more than 24 hours after the seven-year veteran was killed in a car crash as he pursued a fleeing vehicle on Interstate 25 following a reported kidnapping.

The driver of that suspect vehicle had not been arrested heading into the weekend.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday ordered all flags in the state to half-staff from Thursday through sundown Monday in honor of Duran, who, she said in a statement, "served the Santa Fe community with dedication and selflessness."

Duran's simple but vital gifts, his friends said, will be among the many things they'll miss.

"Even when times were tough, even if it was a bad call, he always managed to put on a smile and had a wonderful sense of humor," said Elliot, who now works for the Edgewood Police Department but spent five years as Duran's patrol partner in Santa Fe. "If he started to laugh or smile, you couldn't help yourself; you had to, too."

Duran, 43, was a relative late-comer to law enforcement, getting into police work in his 30s. Born in Artesia in 1979, he graduated from nearby Lake Arthur High School in 1997, Santa Fe Police Department Interim Chief Paul Joye said Thursday.

Duran, Joye added, spent about 10 years in California as a young man and worked as a low-voltage technician in Albuquerque before joining the department in 2015.

Duran, who lived in Rio Rancho, shouldered extra responsibility at work and was a team leader for the department's emergency response team and "a large part of helping get the emergency response team off the ground," Joye said.

Elliot said it had been Duran's lifelong dream to be a police officer.

"He was willing to put his life on the line to do his job and protect the citizens of Santa Fe," said Elliot. "It was something he did every single day without question."

Not everyone is cut out to be a police officer, Elliot said.

But Duran fit, in part because he worked well with people.

"Robert had a warming soul and had a great personality, Santa Fe police Officer Amanda Esquibel wrote on Facebook. "He was very well loved by his Brothers and Sisters in the police department and he will be very well missed."

Outside of work, Duran enjoyed hunting and fishing in the Pecos Wilderness with his two sons, Elliot said.

The crushing loss of Duran and his life in public service had a mirror image in Las Vegas, N.M., as New Mexico State Police released the name of the other victim in Wednesday's crash.

Frank Lovato, who served as a firefighter in Las Vegas for more than three decades, also died in the melee, though he was not involved in the chase.

"This is a great loss to our community and our department as he was very active in our community even after his retirement," Las Vegas interim fire Chief Steven C. Spann wrote in an email.

Gov. Lujan Grisham on Thursday said "My prayers are also with the loved ones of (Lovato), who was integral to the growth of the town's fire department."

Lovato, 62, began his public service career at 18 as a volunteer firefighter with the E. Romero Fire House in Las Vegas, Spann wrote, and also served with the Company 1 and Gallinas departments before becoming a paid firefighter for the city of Las Vegas in 1983.

Lovato worked his way through the ranks of the department and was an engineer within the department when he retired in 2006.

"Even after retirement, he never stopped being a firefighter," Spann wrote. "He would always come by and visit the crews and always had time for a cup of coffee."

Spann said Lovato's family asked the department to issue a statement on their behalf so they could have time to mourn him.

When Lovato's body is released from the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque, the department will provide him an escort to a funeral home in Santa Fe, Spann wrote. It was an honor Santa Fe police and other law enforcement officers provided for Duran late Wednesday night as his body was transferred from the crash site to Albuquerque.

Spann wrote Lovato's badge in the Las Vegas Fire Department — No. 27 — will be retired in his honor.

"He was an example for all of us on the true meaning of brotherhood, or should I say family, in the fire service," Spann wrote, adding department members who had worked with Lovato described him as selfless, down to earth and "the exact definition of a public servant."