COLORADO SPRINGS — An officer-involved shooting in March that left a man dead was determined as justified. KOAA News5 brought you the story where the police were pursuing suspect James Gregory who had an active warrant for attempted murder out of Mississippi.
The officers believed that he posed an active deadly threat to civilian bystanders and businesses nearby.
Around 9:30 a.m., police located Gregory near North Circle and Bijou.
Police say he pulled a gun and started shooting at them, and at least one officer fired back but details from the case show that the officer exited his patrol vehicle after spotting the suspect and instructing him to stop.
Gregory then "pointed a handgun" at the officer and the officer drew his services handgun and fired multiple times while the suspect ran north.
According to the District Attorney's Office report, the officer pursued the suspect on foot and fired a total of fourteen rounds striking the suspect at least once. The suspect did not stop or drop his gun and continued to run through business parking lots on the east side of North Circle Drive.
Additional police officers arrived on the scene catching up with Gregory at the local game store where he slowed down.
They told the suspect to drop his weapon and he did not comply but instead raised his gun towards the officers, two officers then fired at Gregory wounding him and he fell to the ground. According to the District Attorney's Office, two more officers fired six shots each at the suspect.
Officers approached the suspect and immediately started medical aid and called the CSPD paramedics to begin advanced life-saving measures but they were unable to resuscitate him and he died on the scene due to his injuries.
The District Attorney's Office conducted an analysis of the case and deemed the officer's actions as justified. The analysis concluded that since the suspect was wanted on an active attempted murder warrant, he posed a deadly threat to officers and to civilian bystanders and nearby businesses.
The investigation determined that less lethal options were considered but were ruled out given that the suspect presented an armed threat and refused to comply with multiple officer commands to disarm but instead pointed his gun at them "putting them in imminent fear for their safety and promoting them to shoot him."
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