The Denver Channel
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A suspect shot by Fort Collins Police has died after a shootout Sunday afternoon, police said.
It happened around 3:45 p.m. in a staircase of the Cimarron Square Townhouses located in the southeast corner of Drake Road and Shields Street.
Jason Phol, a reporter for the Coloradoan newspaper, tweeted that he lives across the street from the shooting location and was awakened by gunfire and a “slew of sirens.”
The police officer was responding to a “welfare check” on a man who was lying in a stairwell of the apartment, police said.
A police spokesman told 7NEWS at the scene that the man jumped up and fired as the officer approached and the officer was hit in his bullet-proof vest, which patrol officers are required to wear while on duty. The officer, who has not been identified, returned fire, hitting the suspect and fatally wounding him.
Both he and the suspect were rushed to Medical Center of the Rockies where the suspect later died. The officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Police haven’t said how many shots were fired or how many times the suspect and officer were hit.
Two eyewitnesses contradicted the police version of the shooting, telling 7NEWS the suspect did not fire a weapon. They said six or seven shots were fired by the police officer as he fell backward.
7NEWS reporter Russell Haythorn said there were about two dozen officers at the shooting scene at 5 p.m. They were interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence. They also removed several people from an apartment that may be associated with the shooting suspect.
Police said the officer who was shot was a veteran police officer but had only been with FCPD for just over a year.
The last time an officer shot a suspect and was shot by the suspect was Dec. 25, 2009. The last officer-involved shooting in Fort Collins occurred this past June.
Reprinted with permission from The Denver Channel.