'Sorry for taking him away from you': Executed cop-killer Wesley Ruiz's final words to victim's family
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers' discretion advised
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS: Wesley Ruiz, a death row inmate, convicted of fatally shooting a Dallas police officer in 2007 used his final breath to apologize to the officer’s family. The 43-year-old cop killer apologized to Mark Nix's family, saying he was sorry “for taking him away from you” minutes before being put to death on Wednesday, February 1, 2023.
Nearly 16 years ago, Wesley Ruiz fled from police because he said he had drugs in the car and was high at the time. Followed by a high-speed chase, officer Mark Nix was able to stop Ruiz after he slid off the road. Using his telescope police baton, the US Navy veteran tried to break and smash the window on the passenger side. However the killer fired a single shot at the officer, and the bullet hit the officer’s badge shattering it and sending metal splinters into Nix’s neck, killing him. Moreover, Ruiz was given a lethal injection as punishment for shooting and killing Nuiz on Wednesday.
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What were Wesley Ruiz's final words?
"I would like to apologize to Mark and the Nix family for taking him away from you,” Ruiz said as he lay strapped to the gurney before his final moments. “I hope this brings you closure,” according to New York Post. However, as the death row inmate made his final amendments he never looked or made eye contact with Niz's friends and relatives, who watched him from behind a glass window a few feet away inside the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
'Don't worry about me'
Ruiz further thanked his own friends and family before telling the warden he was “ready to ride.” “Don’t worry about me,” Ruiz said. “I’m ready to fly.” He was given a lethal dose of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate, and was declared dead 22 minutes later at 6.41 pm, according to Fox News.
(Dallas Police Department)
At the time of the fatal shooting, Ruiz claimed he did not mean to kill the officer. The 33-year-old Dallas Police Senior Corporal Nix, who had nearly seven years of service in the law enforcement force in Dallas was engaged and soon to be married when he was killed.