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Man dies in officer-involved shooting in a Colorado mountain town

Posted at 8:57 AM, Dec 07, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-07 10:59:26-05

AVON — A Nevada man was fatally shot during a confrontation with police in the parking lot of a store on Thursday night after pulling out a gun during a traffic stop, authorities said.

The shooting happened soon after state troopers and local officers attempted to make contact with the driver of a rental truck on Interstate 70 that they pulled over near exit for the mountain town of Avon, the Colorado State Patrol said Friday.

After the U-Haul failed to stop on the interstate and pulled into a parking lot of a nearby Walgreens instead, a man got out of the truck with a gun. The patrol said it believes the officers made attempts to negotiate with the man and tried to use unspecified less-lethal techniques before he was shot.

A witness told The Vail Daily that the man who was shot pointed the gun at himself and then another person in the truck as officers patiently asked him to put it down. Christopher Dehart, who was headed into the store to get a money order, said the man was eventually shot after pointing the gun at one of the officers.

The truck pulled into the parking lot after being contacted by law enforcement because it was the first place that could accommodate a truck pulling a car trailer, deputy town manager Preston Neill told the newspaper.