DNA helps police nab accused cop shooter

During a felony arrest in 1999, investigators collected Christopher Cooks DNA and entered it into a database. Last Saturday, more than 15 years later, police say Cook fired shots at an Albuquerque police officer.

John Krebsbach, director of the Albuquerque Police Crime Lab, said its what Cook left behind that helped police ID him.

Early Saturday morning Officer Lou Golson pulled over an SUV, suspecting the driver of DWI. The driver shot Golson three times.

Investigators found a gun at the scene. They also recovered fingerprints on the SUV door and on an alcohol bottle. All this evidence was taken to the crime lab.

They would have performed DNA analysis on that, Krebsbach said.

He said different forensic specialists worked through the weekend trying to find a match.

When you've got someone who's willing to commit such an act, shooting a police officer, you don't want to spare any moments, Krebsbach said.

Two days later a match from that DNA popped up. It came from a database called the New Mexico DNA identification system, which was created in 1997.

Nearly 15 years ago, Krebsbach was one of the first people to input samples into that system.

We had to build the program from nothing basically, Krebsbach said.

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DNA helps police nab accused cop shooter