Inmate executed for fatally shooting Dallas officer in 2007

By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas has executed an inmate convicted of fatally shooting a Dallas police officer nearly 16 years ago following a high-speed chase. Wesley Ruiz received a lethal injection Wednesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. His execution was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop it. The 43-year-old was condemned for the March 2007 killing of Dallas Police Senior Corporal Mark Nix, who Ruiz shot after a high speed chase. Authorities say Nix tried to break the passenger window of Ruiz’s vehicle after the chase ended and Ruiz shot Nix, who later died at a hospital. Ruiz was the second inmate put to death this year in Texas and the fourth in the U.S.