Boy, the city of Thornton is tough on employee absenteeism!
July 11: Denver police officer Ranjan Ford Jr. shoots and kills Frank Lobato, a 63-year-old invalid, as he lay in bed watching television after the officer mistook a soda can in the man's hand for a weapon. Police were responding to a domestic disturbance call involving Lobato's nephew Vincent Martinez.
July 5, 2003: DENVER -- A 15-year-old mentally challenged teenager shot by Denver police Saturday after he allegedly threatened his mother with a knife died at the hospital.
January 30, 2002: DENVER -- Denver police are investigating a deadly police shooting Wednesday morning that has left one family in shock.
It started around 8 p.m. Tuesday when a defiant teenager was lashing out against his mom. Regina Smith said that she got in a fight with her son Greg (pictured, left) and he started to throw things around the house. When he smashed her car window, she called 911.
When police arrived at the home on the 3000 block of Garfield on the report of a domestic disturbance, Greg Smith had fled.
When the 18-year-old returned to the home four hours later, his mother said that he was still angry.
"He went in the drawer, got the knife, gave it to me and told me to kill him," Keith said.
When officers arrived for the second time, they found Smith at the bottom of the stairs leading to his room, 7NEWS reported. Smith told officers that he didn't want to go to jail and then pulled out a knife, 7NEWS reported.
"A confrontation ensued and the suspect was shot," a police press release said.
October 20, 2003: DENVER -- After another suspect was shot and killed by a Denver police officer over the weekend, city leaders are calling for an independent review of all eight deadly shootings by Denver police this year
City councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth and councilman Michael Hancock are calling for the review, wanting to make sure that the shootings are not racially motivated.
"It doesn't say that we are challenging our police department or the authority of the district attorney, it just says that we really want to know what happened, with an independent voice and an independent look," said Wedgeworth.
The U.S. Attorney's Office will conduct the investigation, which should begin sometime this week, Wedgeworth said.
The latest shooting occurred Saturday, when a Denver officer killed a 29-year-old man they say was threatening his family with a pickax.
Luis Rodelas-Acuna was wielding a pickax when police arrived at a house in southwest Denver just before 3 a.m., police said. He was shot when he refused to drop the weapon after several police orders and moved toward the officer at the scene, said Sgt. David Archuleta.
Rodelas-Acuna was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where he died. Archuleta said the suspect was apparently drunk. Ana Rios, Rodelas-Acuna's girlfriend, contradicted police accounts and accused them of planting evidence on Rodelas-Acuna. However, other family members and eyewitnesses confirm the DPD's version of events, police said. The officer involved, Michael Ahrens, has been on the force since 2000. He's on administrative leave pending the investigation.
Wedgeworth is also worried about the outcome of a controversial police shooting involving a disabled teen who was legally blind.
The district attorney decided not to charge the officer who killed 15-year-old Paul Childs, even though it was the second disabled teen the policeman had shot dead in 18 months. Ritter has cleared police in all 70 shootings since he was elected 10 years ago.
Story time..
A few months back I was supposed to work a midshift and earlier that evening a took some melatonin to help me fall asleep and ended up over-sleeping. Because of the nature of my job, when I didn't show up the police were called to come to my house and check on me.
I never heard them knock or anything, what if they had decided to do a "welfare check" on me and broke in. I own 2 guns, what if I came out with one to protect myself from an intruder?