By Kassondra Cloos
The Gazette
FOUNTAIN, Colo. — The minutes leading up to a deadly officer-involved shooting in Fountain were fluid and frantic, and the officer who shot a 17-year-old boy didn’t have time to double-check that his body-worn camera was on and recording, Fountain’s police chief said Wednesday.
Officer Jonathan Kay shot Patrick O’Grady on Sept. 24 at 775 Legend Oak Drive shortly after O’Grady’s mother called to report a disturbance. Fountain’s deputy chief, Ron Reeves, said that afternoon that the shooting happened when an officer entered the house and saw a male with a handgun.
A teen boy was arrested by Fountain police Wednesday on suspicion of crimes that precipitated the shooting, and he was turned over to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office for its investigation. Kay, 44, is on paid administrative leave and the Sheriff’s Office is conducting the investigation, per Fountain Police Department policy.
Details about what happened inside the home have not been released, but Fountain Police Chief Chris Heberer said Wednesday O’Grady’s mother went outside when she saw officers arrive on scene and she appeared frantic.
“She was waving, waving, and asking Kay to come into the house,” Heberer said.
All Fountain police officers are equipped with body-worn cameras, but officers must press and hold the “on” button to begin recording, Heberer said. Department policy indicates officers should not compromise their safety or anyone else’s in order to turn on the cameras: “At no time is a member expected to jeopardize his/her safety in order to activate a portable recorder or change the recording media,” the policy states. “However, the recorder should be activated ... as soon as practicable.”
Heberer said based on everything he knows, Kay followed policy. He thought the camera was on and only realized it was off when he looked down to radio for backup and medical assistance after shooting O’Grady. He then turned it on, and there is footage immediately after the discharge of the weapon, Heberer said.
“When John Kay arrives, it’s a very dynamic, uncertain situation, where John clearly sees the mom that he knows is panicked and needing immediate assistance,” Heberer said.
The day before the shooting, Kay had contact with O’Grady’s mother because her car had been stolen, Heberer said. On Sept. 24 a call to Colorado Springs police about a motor vehicle theft in progress was transferred to Fountain police. Kay recognized the address and responded to the scene, where the situation had evolved into a disturbance.
Kay is in his eighth month with the Fountain Police Department following a 15-year absence from law enforcement, according to his employment application.
Documents obtained by The Gazette on Wednesday state that Kay resigned as a Leadville police officer in July 2000 “to focus on being a father” and became a Comcast installation technician, supervisor and manager across Colorado.
But the itch to be a cop never went away, and in December he applied to the Fountain Police Department.
“I love the diversity of the job and not knowing what was going to happen that day made the job exciting and interesting all the same,” Kay wrote in his application.
He joined the Fountain police force two months later.
A graduate of Hillcrest High School in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Kay began his law enforcement career as a reserve police officer with the Erie Police Department in northern Colorado. Two years later he joined the Dacono Police Department for a full-time position as a patrol officer. That job ended abruptly in May 1999, when he allowed a student — known as a police explorer — to use a radar gun. Kay was on a one-year probation when he violated the department policy, he explained in his employment application.
In July 1999, Kay joined the Leadville police force. He resigned a year later, when his daughter was born.
He spent the next 14 years with Comcast Cable in Colorado Springs, Englewood and Lakewood.
He was fired from Comcast in May 2014. Kay said in his Fountain police application that he was terminated after violating a code of conduct policy. “I was asked to identify the members on my team that were pro-Comcast or pro-union,” he wrote. “I refused to single out anyone on my team because I felt as if they would try to get rid of anyone on my team that was pro-union.”
He started applying for jobs at law enforcement agencies in the Colorado Springs area, and was soon hired by the Fountain Police Department.
The teenager arrested Wednesday is suspected of first degree burglary, attempted motor vehicle theft, juvenile possession of a handgun and attempted theft. His name and age were not released, and neither were any details about the crimes’ relevance to the shooting. The boy was not at the home at the time of the shooting, and the crimes of which he is accused did not occur at the home, said Jacqueline Kirby, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office. He is not related to the family but did know O’Grady, Heberer said.
Heberer emphasized that he will give more information once the investigation is closed. Until then, he does not want to compromise it by sharing too much.
“When this case is completely closed, I will release everything,” Heberer said.
The investigation is ongoing.
Copyright 2015 The Gazette