By Alex Burness
Daily Camera
BOULDER, Colo. — The two police officers who shot and killed a machete-wielding man Oct. 5 on the University of Colorado campus were trapped in a stairwell with the man, and fired their weapons when he ignored their orders and quickly advanced on them, Boulder police Chief Greg Testa said.
In a presentation on his office’s approach to issues including police bias and use of lethal force, Testa on Tuesday offered the Boulder City Council his understanding of the incident that left the man — ex-Marine Brandon Simmons, 28, of Thornton — dead inside the school’s Champions Center earlier this month.
Fourteen CU officers and nine city officers responded that morning. Two of them — CU’s Clay Austin and Boulder’s Jason Connor — found Simmons trying to access the fifth and sixth floors of the Champions Center, which one can only do with a key card, Testa said. Neither Simmons nor the officers had key cards needed to exit the stairwell.
“When the confrontation occurs” between officers and suspect, the chief told the City Council, “the distances are very close and the officers are yelling at him to drop his bladed weapon. ... He cussed or made statements to them that would indicate he wasn’t going to comply, and he started advancing towards them.
“Both the officers were trying to back down the stairs as they’re yelling with him, and the distances got so close that they ended up shooting their weapons.”
The incident — Boulder County’s third officer-involved shooting of the year — is under investigation by the county’s Critical Incident Team.
But while it won’t be up to Testa to determine whether the killing of Simmons was justified, he said he’s been fielding questions regarding why the officers didn’t use Tasers to attempt a non-lethal resolution.
“The dynamics of each situation are unique,” Testa said. “They’re in a contained stairwell trying to back down, but, as I understand, (Simmons) is advancing on them in a menacing manner, and so an officer has to make a decision: Do I use a Taser? Do I have the time to use a Taser? And is a Taser going to be accurate and effective?
“If it’s not, then that officer is potentially going to be the recipient of lethal force.”
In July 2015, a Boulder police officer shot and killed CU student Sam Forgy, 22, who — naked and believed to be high on LSD — confronted police with a hammer. In that instance, police said, an officer tried unsuccessfully to use a Taser before another officer shot and killed Forgy.
And in December, a Boulder cop tried unsuccessfully to subdue a 49-year-old homeless man with a Taser, after the man was reported to be running through traffic threatening drivers and police alike with a knife. That event was ultimately resolved peacefully, but Testa said, “I have no doubt” that the officer would have been justified in shooting and killing the man.
After Testa’s presentation, Councilman Sam Weaver asked whether the department has a policy regarding when it’s appropriate to shoot to kill, versus to injure.
“There have been cases here in Boulder where officers not in a confined space were being advanced on and they chose to target the legs of the person,” Weaver said.
Testa said his officers don’t have a policy regarding where to target and under what circumstances. Instead, they’re trained to shoot for the center of a suspect’s mass, in large part because targeting the center offers the best chance to connect.
“Law enforcement officers do not shoot to kill somebody,” Testa told the council. “They shoot to stop a threat.”