By Kaitlin Durbin
The Gazette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A task force meant to tackle rising auto thefts in the Pikes Peak region was winging it when they followed a stolen vehicle to an east Colorado Springs apartment complex where an El Paso County deputy was killed in a shootout, according to a 907-page report police released Wednesday.
The Beat Auto Theft Through Law Enforcement task force, comprised of officers from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado Springs Police Department and Colorado State Patrol, had encountered the suspect car thief, Manuel Zetina, by chance, task force members’ accounts showed.
The officers had gathered for a briefing on Feb. 5, as they did most Mondays, before setting out on their usual routine search for stolen vehicles. Sometimes they search for specific vehicles; other times they check theft hot spots and use a license plate reader to scan for stolen cars.
“Generally we kinda pick different areas that, you know, one team will go north, one team will go east or one team will go south, um, one team will go west,” El Paso County sheriff’s Detective Michael Boggs said in the report.
“We dress in plainclothes, we drive undercover vehicles, we go out and proactively search for stolen cars,” was sheriff’s Detective John Watts’ summary.
That Monday, task force members were on the prowl when a green Saturn parked outside a motel off North Chestnut Street about 8 a.m. came up as stolen. For the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, the team followed the vehicle as it moved through the city, making several stops — a car wash, different parking lots, a friend’s house where the driver, later identified as Zetina, spray-painted the car blue.
They had placed a tracker on the vehicle, allowing them to follow it’s movements by GPS, but they also followed it, careful to avoid detection by taking no more than three turns with the vehicle, Deputy Trey White noted in his statement.
At one point they suspected Zetina might be on to them as he weaved in and out of traffic and made frequent turns and U-turns — maneuvers meant to throw off anyone who may be following. At a stop light, while detectives watched from a car behind, Zetina stuck out his left hand and flipped up his middle finger.
Initially, officers thought it was directed at them, but, as Zetina punched the gas, sheriff’s Detective Trey White said it was determined that Zetina was actually flipping off the vehicle behind him in a suspected road rage incident in which the two vehicles “were flying down Powers cutting each other off and driving crazy.”
Zetina continued his evasive maneuvers, which Deputy Stephanie Criss said “is very common when they are following stolen cars that the suspects will stop or drive through parking lots in an attempt to lose anyone that might be following them.”
Officers “did not believe (Zetina) knew the police were there,” as they followed him to his final stop at Murray Hill Apartments, 4225 Galley Road, according to a statement by police Sgt. Kevin Miyakusu. There, they watched and waited.
The goal was to confirm that Zetina was alone in the vehicle and to wait for him to exit the car.
“They do not try to take them in the car to prevent any type of pursuit,” Miyakusu explained.
To get a better view, White left his vehicle and walked nonchalantly around the apartment complex relaying information about Zetina’s movements back to his team members by cellphone to avoid giving himself away as an officer.
As he went, he told officers where to set up in different areas in case Zetina tried to run. Boggs wasn’t wearing his protective vest.
There also was poor communication. White was trying to warn others that Zetina may have a weapon in his pocket, but he couldn’t reach them — one officer had left his phone in the car, the other he wasn’t sure heard him.
White said he had a bad feeling as Zetina was staring at him “really hard,” and he suspected Zetina knew he was a cop despite him being in plainclothes and having no insignia visible.
“Something’s not right,” White said he thought, but it was too late to warn his team as he watched detectives, including Micah Flick, approach Zetina in the parking lot. White didn’t see officers make contact, but others described seeing Deputy Scott Stone grab Zetina in a “bear hug,” a tactical maneuver that Watts said they do so suspects “can’t get to their arms.”
Then, “gunfire erupts,” White said. Other officers described it as “chaos.”
The moment Stone’s arms were around him, Zetina flailed, “immediately” pulling a gun from his right pocket and firing, shooting three officers and a bystander who had unknowingly walked into the area unbeknownst to any of the 10 task force members.
“I don’t know where he came from,” Watts said of Villanueva in his statement. “I knew he wasn’t involved.”
Flick was fatally shot “through and through” in the chest, just below the neck area and, according to Watts, “right above the vest.” He apparently never pulled his weapon, as Deputy Jason Haag recalled removing it from Flick’s holster when medical staff arrived.
Police Detective Marcus Yanez was hit in the groin, Stone in the left hip and Villanueva in the spine, paralyzing him from the chest down. Sheriff’s Sgt. Jacob Abendschan was hit in the buttocks by shrapnel.
Three officers returned fire, striking Zetina in the torso and back and grazing his left arm. White said he heard Zetina say “I’m hit, I’m hit,” and “Don’t kill me.”
Other highlights from the report include:
- Zetina was known by police to be a member of the South Side Soldados gang or “Triple S.” Zetina went by the gang moniker “Grumpy.”
- According to Zetina’s mother, Monica Lopez Ramirez, she had “trouble with him a lot,” explaining that his drug use and possessing a gun made him “too dangerous” to be around his other siblings, which is why he moved out. Ramirez also said she knew he was going to be killed “because he was really bad.”
- Many children arriving home from school were just minutes behind the shooting. In the case of Zetina’s younger brother, he already had arrived back home and was inside his family’s apartment during the shooting.
- Another child, whose age was redacted, witnessed “people falling” amid the shooting and had to be treated after hyperventilating and having a panic attack. His mother described finding him in his bedroom closet screaming. Her youngest son, 4, may also have seen the shooting, she said, noting he “couldn’t speak for some time after the shooting occurred.”