Death row prisoner Wesley Ruiz told his family "don't worry about me, I'm ready to fly" in his final words before being executed for the murder of a Dallas police officer.
The 43-year-old received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, for the March 2007 killing of Dallas Police Senior Corporal Mark Nix.
"I would like to apologise to Mark and the Nix family for taking him away from you," Ruiz said as he was laying strapped to a gurney in the death chamber. "I hope this brings you closure."
He never looked at Mr Nix's relatives and friends, including the slain officer's mother and sister, who watched through a window a few feet from him.
Ruiz thanked his family and friends for supporting him and urged his children to "stand tall and continue to make me proud."
"Don't worry about me. I'm ready to fly," he said. "All right warden, I'm ready to ride."
As the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began taking effect, he took two quick breaths, then began snoring. His 11th snore was his last and there was no further movement.
Twenty-two minutes later, at 6.41 pm, he was pronounced dead.
Immediately before his statement, a spiritual adviser standing near Ruiz offered a brief prayer. Outside the brick walls of the prison, a group of about a dozen pro-police motorcyclists sat on their bikes in a cold drizzle, revving their engines and nearly drowning out her words for those inside.
Ruiz was the second inmate put to death this year in Texas and the fourth in the US. Seven other executions are scheduled in Texas for later this year, including one next week.
Nearly 16 years ago Ruiz led officers on a high-speed chase after being spotted driving a car that matched the description of one used by a murder suspect.
Authorities said Ruiz fired one shot at Mr Nix when the officer tried to break the vehicle's passenger window after the chase. The bullet hit Mr Nix's badge, splintered it and sent fragments into his neck, severing an artery. He later died at a hospital.
Mr Nix, 33, a US Navy veteran of Operation Desert Storm, had been on the Dallas force for nearly seven years and was engaged to be married when he was killed.
The US Supreme Court earlier Wednesday declined an appeal from Ruiz's attorneys to halt the execution. The defence had argued that jurors relied on "overtly racist" and "blatant anti-Hispanic stereotypes" in appraising whether Ruiz posed a future danger, an element needed to secure a death sentence in Texas. Ruiz was Hispanic.
