CHP Officer Killed by Drunk Driver

Wednesday, May 18, 1938

Officer Leonard Nelson and his partner, Officer L.L. Jordan, were working the graveyard shift in Artesia when they stopped a suspected drunk driver at 2:30 a.m. Nelson was administering the sobriety test to the suspect when a vehicle driven by a second drunk driver crashed into the pair. Both the 30-year-old patrol officer and the driver he had been testing were killed.