By Katie Langford and Lauren Penington
The Denver Post
AURORA, Colo. — An Aurora Police Department officer was stabbed in the head multiple times by a man who rushed at him with a butcher knife at an apartment complex near Cherry Creek Reservoir on Thursday, department officials said. The officer fatally shot the 23-year-old suspect during the attack.
Aurora police responded to the complex in the 14000 block of East Stanford Circle at 3:30 p.m. after receiving a call from Aurora Mental Health about a man experiencing a mental health crisis, Chief Todd Chamberlain said in a briefing Thursday evening.
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A mental health clinician responded to the scene alongside police and talked with the man by phone. The man was threatening to kill himself and others and wanted to kill or be killed by police officers, Chamberlain said.
The man refused to continue talking with the crisis response team after about 25 minutes. When the clinician tried to talk to him through a window, the man was seen holding a large butcher knife to his neck.
A group of officers was staged nearby when the man suddenly burst out of the apartment, charged one of the officers and repeatedly stabbed him in the head with the butcher knife, Chamberlain said.
The stabbing was so forceful that the tip of the knife broke off inside the officer’s head, Chamberlain said, but the officer was able to fire his gun and shoot the man during the attack.
Other officers on scene tried to use less-lethal force, including a Taser, to stop the man as the stabbing unfolded in a matter of seconds, the chief said.
Paramedics took the officer to a hospital, where he was in surgery Thursday evening. The knife-wielding man was taken to a hospital by ambulance and pronounced dead.
The man killed will be identified by the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office.
The injured officer joined the Aurora Police Department in 2002, according to a news release from the department. He is also a canine handler and has been assigned to the department’s police dog unit since 2012. His dog sustained minor injuries in the Thursday incident but is expected to recover.
“I thank God that our officer is not dead,” Chamberlain said. “I thank God that our officer is in surgery, and I’m so thankful that he survived this.”
The man had a history of mental health issues, including suicidal ideation, and it appears police had responded to that address at least one time before Thursday, Chamberlain said.
“The Aurora Police Department, our patrol assets, our clinicians and our crisis response team did everything we could possibly do to resolve this without the incredibly tragic conclusion,” Chamberlain said.
The 18th Judicial Critical Incident Response Team is leading the investigation into the police shooting. The Aurora Police Department will also conduct an administrative review of the incident.
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