Suspect dead, deputy shot and injured in Colorado town of Elizabeth
A suspect is dead and a Colorado deputy was shot in his armored vest Tuesday morning as deputies were serving a search warrant in Elizabeth. That deputy, from the Elbert County Sheriff's Office, suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene.
Deputies were serving that warrant in the Fitzgerald Apartments at 175 East Spruce Street when that deputy was shot, according to police officials.
"Upon serving the search warrant, there was an exchange of gunfire between deputies and the occupant of the residence," Elizabeth Police Chief Jeff Engel. "One officer was struck in the soft plate of their ballistic vest. The officer suffered minor injuries and has been evaluated by medical personnel."
Engel would not offer details of the search warrant citing the early stages of the investigation, but said the person in the apartment was dead and they were alone inside that apartment unit.
It's not clear if the man took his own life or was shot by deputies.
Police officials did not identify the suspect but said he was an adult man.
The Douglas County Sheriff's Office helped Elbert County with the operation by bringing their SWAT team to the scene.
"After initial shots, we hunkered down some more and tried to put gas tear gas into the resident while waiting for Douglas County to arrive with additional equipment. Once we got additional equipment inside we were able to determine that one male subject was down on the floor. At that point we breached the door, went in and found the male subject deceased on the floor," Elbert County Sheriff Tim Norton said.
Residents told CBS News Colorado they didn't know anything about what was going on, they were just told to shelter in place.
"I heard the cops saying 'come out with your hands up' and then heard some gunshots and then it was -- they told me to go in the house, shelter in place," said local resident Shelly Kliner. She initially said she heard three or four gunshots. "I wasn't really scared at first now of course I'm wondering what's going on, so -- still don't know."
Morgan Fechter, an Elizabeth resident, described the town as "quiet" and "neighborly." Tuesday started as a normal day for her but around 8:45 a.m., she said she heard four or five gunshots, went outside and then heard six or seven more shots. A moment later, she said she heard maybe 10 more shots. After some time, she estimated hearing 30 to 40 gunshots in all.
"I still wasn't sure for a long time if it was even gunshots because that's not a common thing you would hear," she said. (I was) mostly surprised."
Norton said after the shots were fired, the shelter-in-place order was sent out and neighboring residents were evacuated.
Many neighbors say they never received the emergency alert and were left scared and confused.
Norton, who says he's been in law enforcement for 40 years, said incidents of this nature are really rare in Elbert County.
"When I first heard it, I couldn't believe it. The deputy who did get struck, he's a very seasoned deputy. He's a very strong, level-headed person and my heart just dropped as soon as I heard 'shots fired and we had one hit' so I wanted to make sure he had the best care and get him out of the scene as soon as possible," Norton said. "When I heard he was fine and was remaining on scene until we got additional resources there -- once Douglas County came with additional resources, we were able to extract him from the scene where he was properly evaluated."
By 11:30 a.m., over two hours after the shelter-in-place was ordered, Norton said "everything is safe."
Elbert County residents can sign up for emergency alerts at elbertcounty-co.gov.
Elizabeth is about 50 miles southeast of Denver and 15 miles east of Castle Rock. It has a population of about 1,600 people.
