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Colorado Police Department shot and killed a Good Samaritan last year who had used his pistol to take out an active gunman.
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Now the Good Samaritan’s mother has charged the city’s officer and police chief.
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Prosecutors have already acquitted the officer, saying the shooting was justified.
The mother of a Good Samaritan who was fatally shot by police after shooting down an active gunman has sued the officer in charge and the city’s police chief, arguing the officer should have known that the Good Samaritan was not the active gunman used to be.
Johnny Hurley shot an active gunman named Ronald Troyke with his concealed handgun on June 21, 2021, after Troyke opened fire in a shopping and entertainment district in Colorado, killing police officer Gordon Beesley. According to the lawsuit and Colorado authorities, Hurley picked up the Troyke’s rifle to remove the magazine. But when an Arvada police officer saw Hurley holding the rifle in his hand, the officer shot Hurley from behind without warning.
The wrongful death lawsuit, filed in a Colorado court this week by Hurley’s mother Kathleen Boleyn, alleged that the officer in charge, Kraig Brownlow, should have known that Hurley was not an active gunman because Hurley and Troyke were wearing different clothes. and looked distinctly different.
As the incident began that day, Brownlow and several other officers heard shots and saw Troyke from a police station window, and saw that he was a heavyset man with a long rifle and wearing a black shirt and hat, according to police. to the lawsuit.
“Unlike Mr. Hurley, the three APD officers did not take action,” the lawsuit alleged. “On the contrary, they crept in and chose self-preservation over civilian defense.”
The Arvada Police Department told Insider in a statement that Brownlow has since resigned from the reputable department. A spokesperson said that following an internal review, “the APD found that Agent Brownlow’s actions were consistent with APD’s policies and procedures” and that “the APD is not currently considering changes to its actual training or response protocols. “
Prosecutors in Colorado have previously investigated the incident and said they would not charge Brownlow for the shooting. In a letter announcing the decision last year, District Attorney Alexis King said Brownlow’s decision to shoot Hurley was “legally justified despite his heroic actions that day”.
Prosecutors said that while Brownlow was aware that the active gunner was wearing black, he reasonably recognized that Hurley, who was dressed in red, also posed a threat and could have been a second active gunman.
“At the time, according to information available to Officer Brownlow, John Hurley was armed with a high-powered rifle and handgun in a populated area amid active shooting,” they wrote. “Based on information known to Brownlow, the presence of a mass shooter and the potential for a second mass shooter in a red shirt with a rifle and pistol aimed at a center of community activity, justified deadly force and no less degree of violence.” would remove the potential threat.”
But Boleyn’s lawsuit alleged that “no reasonable officer could have seen a threat to Mr Hurley’s actions,” and that his death “was not the result of an unfortunate split-second misjudgment, but the result of an intentional and unlawful use of force.”
Read the original article on Insider
