Suspect surrenders after killing police dog near school in Colorado
An armed man in central Colorado surrendered to authorities early Monday morning, after a pursuit involving the regional SWAT team that lasted almost five hours, officials said. The suspect, who law enforcement agencies have not yet identified, was apprehended after he shot and killed a K-9 police dog while fleeing the scene just after midnight, police said.
The incident unfolded after officers with the Golden Police Department and the Colorado School of Mines initially approached the suspect inside a vehicle that was parked near the university's campus at around 12:15 a.m., police said.
In a news release describing the incident, police said the man was "slumped over the steering wheel and non-responsive to officers' attempts to alert him." He then woke and began to drive the car "at a slow rate of speed while swerving into oncoming traffic," authorities said, noting that the vehicle eventually slowed to a stop before "officers observed the driver slumped over again and attempted to wake him." Police say a confrontation ensued after the suspect woke again and started hitting his car into the responding officers' patrol vehicles in an apparent attempt to escape.
Officers were able to break through the window of the man's driver's side door and put his car in park, police said, but when they tried removing him from the vehicle, the man "was able to free himself from officers' grasp" and fled. Authorities say the man pointed a handgun at a Golden police officer who chased him toward a wooded area where he evaded officers for several hours.
A shelter in place was ordered for the Colorado School of Mines, which is located about 15 miles west of Denver, as well as parts of the surrounding county while the suspect remained at large, police said. At one point, a police dog assigned to the county sheriff's office successfully tracked the suspect in the midst of the pursuit. The suspect fatally shot the animal and a sheriff's deputy returned fire, police said. It was unclear if the suspect was injured.
Just before 5:00 a.m., "the suspect came out of hiding and surrendered to perimeter units," said Golden police. "He was in possession of a holster without a gun in it. The gun was located in the nearby vicinity."
The School of Mines' police department is investigating the incident. Although the campus shelter-in-place was lifted at around 6 a.m. on Monday morning, after officers apprehended the man, it remained closed to any new visitors, CBS Colorado reported. The university said it planned to reopen at noon, when classes and student activities will also resume.