Sheriff: Weekend police shootings unprecedented in Larimer County

UPDATE 7/27: The Larimer County District Attorney has deemed sheriff's deputies justified in the June 30 shooting of Chet Knuppel and a Fort Collins police and CSU officer justified in the July 1 shooting of Jeremy Holmes.

ORIGINAL STORY: In an unprecedented series of events, officers from three Larimer County law-enforcement agencies fatally shot two men in unrelated incidents over the weekend.

A Larimer County Sheriff's Office deputy shot Chet Knuppel, 23, during a foot pursuit on the edge of southeast Fort Collins on Friday. On Saturday, Fort Collins Police Services and Colorado State University officers shot an armed man — Jeremy Holmes, 19 — on the edge of the Colorado State University campus.

Sheriff Justin Smith said via Facebook on Sunday that police shootings on consecutive days were a first in his nearly three decades in law enforcement in Larimer County.

Citing an increase in violent crime locally, Smith wrote, "... no one should be surprised that officers are themselves facing more and more situations where they may have to use higher degrees of force."

He also encouraged residents to trust in both the training of local law enforcement and the investigations lead by the 8th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team that are set in motion by each officer-involved shooting.

Smith did not, however, provide a citation for his assertion that violent crime has spiked in the area in recent years.

The Larimer County District Attorney's Office, which investigates all incidents involving an officer's deadly use of force, has issued 13 opinions on police shootings in the county since 2011.

District Attorney Cliff Riedel has cleared officers of wrongdoing in one incident in 2017, and will issue opinions in both of this weekend's shootings and in the June shooting by Loveland police of a suspect who allegedly brandished a firearm at officers.

Riedel cleared officers in three use-of-force opinions issued in each of the last two years, two in 2014 and 2013 and one in 2012 and one in 2011. Those numbers were also incorrect in Monday’s story.

Fort Collins City Council member and former police officer Ray Martinez told the Coloradoan in an interview that the council has been briefed as the shootings have happened.

At this point, Martinez said, it's difficult to attribute the most recent officer-involved shootings to any trend.

Saturday shooting

CSU police officers responded about 8:15 p.m. Saturday to a report of a threatening man, and made contact with him about 25 minutes later near the intersection of Prospect Road and Whitcomb Street, according to a LCSO news release. FCPS officers arrived to assist.

The man was armed with an unspecified weapon, and multiple officers fired shots, striking the suspect. 

The man, Holmes, of Fort Collins, was transported to Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, where he was pronounced dead, according to LCSO. The Larimer County coroner determined Holmes' death to have been a homicide, due to multiple gunshot wounds.

Holmes was not a CSU student, according to LCSO. He did not appear to have a prior criminal history in Colorado, court records show.

There is no threat to the public, and no officers were injured, according to FCPS.

The 8th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team is investigating the incident, which involved officers from both FCPS and CSU PD. LCSO will be the lead investigating agency into the shooting.

Student housing, known as the Aggie Village Apartments, lines both sides of the section of Prospect where the shooting happened, and the new on-campus football stadium sits one block north. CSU published an alert on its safety website regarding the shooting.

The shooting was the third officer-involved shooting in the past month and the fourth since the beginning of the year.

Reporter Cassa Niedringhaus covers breaking news for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter: @CassaMN.

Recent fatal officer-involved shootings in Larimer County

• June 8: Loveland Police officers fatally shot Stephen Rich, 48, after a failed traffic stop and an exchange of gunfire. Four officer were involved: Stephen Marchio, 32; Sean McDonald, 33; Geoff Reeves, 35; and Matthew Sychla, 30. Fort Collins Police Services is the lead investigating agency.
• Friday: A Larimer County Sheriff's Office deputy fatally shot Chet Knuppel, 23, during a foot pursuit. The deputy has not yet been identified. Loveland Police Department is the lead investigating agency.
• Saturday: Colorado Statue University and Fort Collins Police Services officers responded to a report of a threatening man. Multiple officers — who remain unidentified — fatally shot Jeremy Holmes, 19. The Larimer County Sheriff's Office is the lead investigating agency.

This story has been corrected. The number of officer involved shootings that District Attorney Cliff Reidel has issued an opinion on was incorrect, as was the number of shootings in the past three years.