Police released surveillance video that shows a suspect who walked up to a police officer and shot him dead with a shotgun, and that suspect would later be shot and killed by an armed citizen who happened to be shopping the the area. Then, tragically, a responding officer shot and killed the armed citizen.
Below are the details and video of the incident. The video is graphic in nature, so proceed with caution.
John Hurley, the concealed carrier who successfully stopped the suspect, made an error during the process.
A Colorado man hailed as a hero for shooting a suspect who fatally gunned down a police officer this week was killed by police while holding the suspect’s rifle, police said Friday.
Some early confusion on my part was when it was stated that Hurley was holding a rifle. I thought, there’s no way he was carrying a rifle around while he was shopping, and I remember witnesses saying that Hurley pulled out a handgun.
Now, sadly, it makes sense.
Hurley shot [the suspect] with his own handgun and was holding that AR-15 when the other officer arrived and shot him, police said.
What we have here is a responding officer who is aware of shots fired, and probably knows that an officer has just been shot by a suspect with a rifle. That responding officer encounters a person with a rifle, and shoots that person. There may be errors found on both sides when everything is complete, but let’s touch on Hurley, because it plays into being an armed citizen who just successfully stopped an active shooter.
Hurley’s fatal mistake was holding the suspect’s rifle, and I get it. Things are happening so quickly, and all you want to do is stop the bad guy. Hurley did just that, but in the immediate aftermath didn’t realize that he could be viewed as a possible suspect when responding officers arrive on an unsecured scene. Remember; those responding officers don’t know that the actual suspect has been shot.
It’s an absolutely terrible tragedy, and there are many lessons to still discuss with this incident. We’ll be doing just that in the coming weeks with additional topics on this incident.
