Wheat Ridge Police Officer Seriously Hurt In Stabbing At RV Park, Suspect Andre Jones In Custody
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) - A Wheat Ridge police officer was stabbed while responding to the report of a suspicious vehicle that damaged a fence at an RV park early Wednesday. A suspect, identified as Andre Jones, was brought into custody, and the officer had surgery for serious injuries at the hospital.
According to Wheat Ride PIO Sara Spaulding, two officers initially responded about 1 a.m. to The Prospect RV Park in the 11000 block of W 44th Ave, where a suspicious vehicle had reportedly been seen and damaged a fence. Investigators determined the suspicious vehicle at the scene to be a stolen U-Haul truck.
One of the officers approached the suspect and was stabbed multiple times, and the second officer quickly brought the suspect into custody before using the radio to call for support. Two more officers arrived and then more followed to keep their fellow officer alive in time for Arvada Fire Protection District to respond and take the seriously injured officer to the hospital for treatment.
Spaulding released this statement after the officer's surgery, "At this point the officer is out of surgery, he's in good spirits. But he has serious injuries, multiple stab wounds are challenging. The good news is he's in good spirits and surgery went well."
Jones is facing charges of attempted murder and first-degree assault. The First Judicial District Attorney's Office will release formal charges later in the week.
WRPD emphasized the effort police took to respond to their injured officer.
"I think one of the things that strikes me about the police department is they're very much a family, so they care for each other. They look after each other. They're well trained," Spaulding said. "Part of that training includes carrying tourniquets with them. At other scenes, they've responded to individuals who are seriously injured while they wait for Fire/EMS to show up to provide more qualified medical care. But they're still able to provide that lifesaving kind of support, which they did in this case. They took care of our officer and I believe saved his life."
Spaulding was also thankful for the community support that was shown early in the day.
"I am already seeing our community and the support for this officer on social media," Spaulding said. "That's so appreciated, and I'll be sharing that with the rest of the department today that people are concerned about him; they're concerned about the rest of the department and the impact on everyone."
