A Bernalillo County sheriff’s sergeant who was killed when a tractor-trailer struck his patrol vehicle during a traffic stop on Interstate 40 will be honored with public memorial services this weekend and Monday, with his funeral falling on what would have been his 53rd birthday.
Sgt. Michael Schlattman, a 13-year veteran of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, was outside his vehicle Feb. 23 when a semi truck slammed into the rear of his patrol unit near mile marker 170 on eastbound I-40 in the East Mountains. He was pinned underneath and died at the scene. He had called in the stop just before 5 p.m.
The tractor-trailer driver was treated and released at the University of New Mexico Hospital. Rio Rancho police are leading the investigation, with New Mexico State Police and the BCSO traffic unit assisting. Investigators are reviewing dashcam and body camera footage, as well as a witness account that the same truck nearly forced her off the road shortly before the crash.
“This is every agency’s worst nightmare, and tonight it is ours,” Sheriff John Allen said after Schlattman’s death. “Sergeant Schlattman was a servant leader and a protector in the truest sense. He was the kind of supervisor who never asked a deputy to do something he would not do himself. Our hearts are broken.”
Schlattman joined the sheriff’s office in 2012 and worked in Special Investigations and Auto Theft, served on federal task forces with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration, and was promoted to sergeant in 2024. At the time of his death, he supervised deputies in the East Mountains.
A public viewing and visitation will be held Sunday, March 1, from 3 to 5 p.m. at Daniels Family Funerals & Cremation, Sara Road Chapel, 4310 Sara Road in Rio Rancho.
A formal law enforcement procession will depart the funeral home Monday, March 2, at 9:15 a.m. and travel to the Rio Rancho Events Center, 3001 Civic Center Circle N.E., where the memorial service will begin at 10 a.m. Doors open at 9 a.m. March 2 would have been Schlattman’s 53rd birthday.
The sheriff’s office said it is grateful for the “overwhelming support and compassion” shown to Schlattman’s family and the agency, and asked the community to keep his family “especially close in your thoughts and prayers.”
Members of the public are welcome to attend both events.
Ways to support the family
An official GoFundMe has been established at gofund.me/99d3773a1.
Those wishing to send flowers may do so through Daniels Family Funerals & Cremation at danielsfuneral.com/send-flowers.
