'About 20 Rounds': Officers Kill Driver Who Allegedly Reached For Weapon
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) - Arapahoe County sheriff's deputies shot a driver Thursday morning who they say reached for a weapon after he ran away from the scene of an apparent domestic situation. The man died after being taken to the hospital.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office said their deputies responded to reports of a domestic incident about 9 a.m. at a Big O Tire store near Arapahoe Road and Potomac Street.
A man and a woman were getting a tire repaired when a second man came in and chased the woman around a car, according to the store manager Jesse Kolbe.
"The guy that ran up, he was visibly upset the woman appeared terrified, too," he said.
Arapahoe County Sheriff's deputies pursued one of the men after getting a 911 call that he had a gun.
The Hyundai he was driving was eventually boxed in by squad cars less than a mile away at Arapahoe Road and Dayton.
The department spokesperson Julie Brooks says deputies tried to coax the man out, but he refused, "Deputies attempted to break the window to get him out of the vehicle when he reached for a weapon."
After the suspect refused to get out of the car and apparently reached for the weapon, police shot him.
"We tried to get him to exit. He refused to comply to our commands to exit," said Brooks.
The suspect was quickly taken to the hospital and on Thursday afternoon authorities said he died there.
Diane Galvez, a witness who works nearby, told CBS4 officers fired multiple shots into the car.
"They were firing off about 20 rounds of gunfire," said Galvez. "The person never exited the vehicle, thereafter they dragged him out of the vehicle and had him down on the ground and they were trying to revive him by CPR. About 10 minutes later the ambulance came and they took him away in the ambulance."
At the shooting scene, bullet holes could be in the side of the white SUV, which was surrounded by police cruisers and crime tape.
A loaded gun was found inside the car the man was driving.
An officer sustained minor injuries in the incident and will be okay, according to the sheriff's office.
Arapahoe Road was shut down in both directions in the area and the closure lasted into the early afternoon.
CBS4's Rick Sallinger contributed to this report. He is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.
