Suspects shoot at Colorado officers, flee traffic stop before deadly OIS

By Julianna O’Clair
The Denver Post

THORNTON, Colo. — The Thornton Police Department has released partial body camera footage, still images and radio recordings from an April incident in which police killed two people in Lakewood after he said one of them shot at police officers.

The images, which are part of a video briefing released Friday, shows a Thornton officer shooting two people as they climbed out of the driver’s side window of a car after stopping in Lakewood. Police shot the two people, who were later pronounced dead at the scene.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office identified one of the people killed by police as Jasmine Castro, 30, but said it would not publicly release the identity of the second person in accordance with their family’s wishes .

Click below to watch the full video.

Around 2:40 a.m. on April 30, officers reported seeing a car without a license plate at the intersection of East 84th Avenue and Washington Street in Thornton, according to the briefing. Officers followed the car to 70th Avenue and Broadway and attempted to conduct a traffic stop, police said. The driver allegedly refused to stop.

The officers “did not pursue but monitored” the car to Alameda Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard in Lakewood, where one of the car’s occupants fired a gun at the officers, the police said. police. The car left and the police chased him with flashing lights and sirens.

Near Second Avenue and Garrison Street, the officer performed a “technical stop maneuver” and ended the pursuit, police said. One person came out of the driver’s side window of the car with a gun and a second person followed, police said.

A police officer shot the two people, who were pronounced dead at the scene.

The Jefferson County Critical Incident Response Team is investigating the incident and the officers involved in the shooting are on administrative leave, according to police.

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