COLORADO SPRINGS — New information made public in recent court filings challenges the official narrative in the deadly officer involved shooting in Colorado Springs which claimed the life of 19-year-old De'Von Bailey.
The criminal defense lawyer representing Bailey's cousin Lawrence Stoker doesn't believe the initial crime that officers were responding to actually occurred.
On August 3, a man named Anthony Love called the police and identified both Bailey and Stoker to the dispatcher and accused them of stealing his wallet at gunpoint.
"So, I'm walking down the street, there are these two black guys, one of them has a gun," Love told the dispatcher. "They approached me, and they're like, what's in your pockets."
Stoker is charged with a single count of misdemeanor assault, not aggravated robbery. His lawyer Dan Kay thinks that Love was lying when he called the police.
"He absolutely was not robbed. In fact, it's our belief that he was swatting," Kay said.
Kay went on to explain that the evidence submitted in the case suggests his client acting in self-defense.
"The other four people that were present besides Mr. Love are all saying that Mr. Stoker was acting in self-defense because Mr. Love was drunk and Mr. Love was high and Mr. Love attacked Mr. Stoker," Kay said.
What's more, according to Kay, those same witnesses say they heard Love say that Bailey and Stoker were going to, "get what they deserve."
"He (Love) could not even describe what kind of wallet he had," Kay said. "It was claimed that his ID was stolen at one point, then the police officer asked him for his ID and he pulled it out of his left rear pocket."
Kay filed a motion last month asking the judge to suppress the case for lack of probable cause. The motion was denied in a hearing on Friday.
"He (the judge) said it was a close call and he said that of course, the level for probable cause is much different for beyond a reasonable doubt."
The case against Lawrence Stoker is currently scheduled to go to trial in mid-November.
