NUNN – After a brief standoff, police have taken into custody a man who sideswiped a freight train with a truck reported stolen earlier Thursday in rural northern Colorado.
Aerial footage broadcast by a news station helicopter showed Weld County sheriff's deputies and local police taking the man into custody alongside a rail line near the town of Nunn, about 65 miles (104 kilometers) north of Denver, shortly before 12 p.m.
The man, whose identity wasn't immediately released, refused to leave the truck after the collision, which was reported shortly after 9:30 a.m. That prompted a standoff with officers bearing firearms and shields, said Joe Moylan, a spokesman with the Weld County Sheriff's Office.
Officers tried firing one round of tear gas to force him out, then smashed a window on the passenger's side of the vehicle to distract him and grabbed him from the driver's side, Moylan said.
The man was taken to a local hospital for evaluation of any injuries. He was in the custody of authorities in neighboring Larimer County, where the truck had been reported stolen from a construction site in Wellington at 8:45 a.m., said David Moore, spokesman for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office.
The department plans to pursue vehicle theft charges in Larimer County, Moore said.
The crew of the Union Pacific freight train was unhurt.
The Colorado State Patrol closed a nearby stretch of U.S. Route 85 as a precaution during the standoff, said Master Trooper Gary Cutler.
A spokesperson for the Larimer County Sheriff's Department couldn't immediately be reached for comment by telephone.