A New Mexico State police officer who was fired after shooting at a minivan full of children has got his badge back. Taos Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe announced this week that Elias Montoya was one of two new deputies hired out of a pool of 17. The 12-year veteran was fired in December 2013 after an internal investigation into his use of force during an October 2013 shooting. Video footage showed Montoya firing into a van with five children, aged six to 16, inside during a chaotic traffic stop involving their mother in Taos, New Mexico. Scroll down for video . Elias Montoya fired into a van with five children, aged six to 16, inside during a chaotic traffic stop in Taos, New Mexico in 2013 while he worked for the New Mexico State Police. It was announced this week he has a new law enforcement job . The driver of the minivan, mother-of-five Oriana Farrell, of Memphis, Tennessee, faced a number of charges, including aggravated fleeing. Montoya was later offered his job back at New Mexico State Police but chose to resign instead. Hogrefe says Montoya's record remains clean and he deserved another chance. Ms Farrell, 39, spoke last September about the terrifying moment she and her children were shot at. She told GMA in September: 'I started thinking about children who have been shot, families who have been shot. I started thinking about Trayvon Martin.' The highway shootout happened after Farrell earlier had been stopped by a separate state police officer for speeding. Montoya, pictured while serving with the state police, is now a sheriff's deputy in Taos County . She said that she was unclear that the cop was giving her a ticket when he walked away from her car window and so she drove off. The cop then chased her down in his patrol vehicle and when she stopped for the second time, she refused to get out of the van. When she finally agreed, she jumped back inside as an officer attempted to restrain her. With her younger children screaming and her eldest son Zeke leaving the car to defend his mother, the officer called for back-up cars. As Farrell pulled away in terror, dramatic dash-cam video revealed the moment that Officer Elias Montoya fired three shots at the vehicle. Farrell told ABC: 'Even if I was speeding, that doesn’t require being shot at any point.' Farrell and her teenage son were arrested after police brought them to a stop. She faced charges of child abuse, fleeing and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia for marijuana pipes allegedly found in the van. Montoya said his 'heart sank' when he realized there were children inside after the shooting. The father-of-three, said that tinted windows in the van kept him from seeing the children inside. 'My heart sank when they finally stopped and I was at the passenger side at that time seeing them get out at gunpoint again,' he said. 'I couldn't believe it that there were that many children in there.' Oriana Farrell, pictured with her five children in September last year, said there was no excuse for police to open fire on her and her kids in their minivan when a routine traffic stop went awry in 2013 in New Mexico .
Elias Montoya was one of two new deputies hired out of a pool of 17 in Taos County, New Mexico . The 12-year veteran was fired in December 2013 by the New Mexico State Police after an internal investigation into his use of force . Montoya was later offered his job back at New Mexico State Police but chose to resign .