The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is investigating an officer-involved shooting that took place Tuesday afternoon on U.S. Highway 550 north of Durango, according to a news release from La Plata County government.
The shooting was reported at 2:52 p.m. in the 28000 block of U.S. Highway 550, south of Trimble Lane. The highway was closed in both directions for several hours, according the Colorado Department of Transportation.
The county release did not specify which law enforcement agency was involved in the shooting or the status of the individual shot.
La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith said he could not immediately comment.
Moments before the shooting, law enforcement was following a black sedan with New Mexico plates traveling north on Highway 550. A caller reported a woman possibly screaming for help and a man apparently hitting the woman as they drove north at a high rate of speed, according to scanner reports.
Newsletter signup
To sign up for daily and breaking news alerts, visit www.durangoherald.com/newsletter-signup/
Law enforcement caught up with the vehicle near the 28000 block of Highway 550 where they found a man in the roadway acting erratic, according to scanner reports.
First responders then reported someone had been shot.
La Plata County resident Chris Wherry said he saw and heard parts of the incident unfolding from inside his home in the Animas Valley.
Wherry said he was working in his home office when he heard law enforcement sirens. Ten or 15 seconds later, he heard multiple gunshots.
“We have a bunch of trees out on the highway, so I couldn’t get a really clear view of what was going on there, but it looked like ... they had a female person somewhat detained, and then all of a sudden a ton of other emergency vehicles showed up,” he said.
He saw a man lying in the street who appeared to be deceased, with police officers surrounding him. The man was lying behind his own car, Wherry said, and a La Plata County Sheriff’s Office vehicle was parked about 30 feet behind it.
Community member Cat Jaffee said she witnessed the incident at close range from inside her car. Her passenger, who requested to remain anonymous, also saw the incident unfold.
Jaffee said she first saw the man standing outside his vehicle, seemingly waving down La Plata County Sheriff’s Office vehicles as they approached.
The man was waving both hands and did not appear to be holding any weapons, Jaffee said.
The passenger said an officer then got out of his vehicle and almost immediately shot the man five times at close range.
Jaffee said neither she nor her passenger saw any altercation taking place before shots were fired.
“There was a parked car, and it didn’t look like (the man) was alarmed to see the police,” Jaffee said. “It looked like he was almost expecting them. ... Very fast, there were five shots. ... (My passenger) kept saying, ‘That’s a person, that’s a person.’”
Jaffee said the man rolled on the ground for a moment after being shot, then stopped moving.
Officers quickly gathered around the man, she said, and were “putting their hands all over the body.”
A video taken by Jaffee at 2:54 p.m., moments after the man was shot, shows officers seemingly attempting to resuscitate the man.
The Colorado Department of Transportation was already on-scene when the man was shot, she said.
Jaffee said the most jarring part was seeing the officer so immediately shoot the man – more than once – seemingly without any hesitation.
“(It was) incredibly alarming to us that this (was) a police shooting on the side of the road on a Tuesday afternoon in broad daylight where there are people driving,” Jaffee said. “Like, was that the best course of action? Who gets to be accountable for the decisions that were made?”
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which is taking a lead role on the investigation, was not immediately prepared to comment Tuesday night.
epond@durangoherald.com
