Cop slain in ambush
4 others shot in Colo.
A Colorado man ambushed cops called to his apartment over a noise complaint on Sunday, firing more than 100 bullets to kill a sheriff ’s deputy and wound four other lawmen.
“He knew we were coming,’’ Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said. “All of [the officers] were shot very, very quickly. They all went down almost within seconds of each other.’’
The sheriff ’s voice cracked with emotion as he described holding the hand of the wife of slain Deputy Zachari Parrish (inset), a 29year-old father of two, and breaking the news to her.
“I could see in her eyes — her life is over,” Spurlock said.
Castle Rock police and the county sheriff ’s deputies had first shown up at the Copper Canyon Apartments in Highlands Ranch, a suburb of Denver, at around 1 a.m. because of a complaint about noise coming from the home of 37-year-old Matthew Riehl. They left without incident, but returned about four hours later after another complaint. Riehl’s roommate then let them in — and Riehl opened fire with a rifle, officials said. He had been on cops’ radar for his numerous run-ins with the law, authorities said. He was killed in the shootout, but not before fatally shooting Parrish and wounding three other deputies and a cop. Parrish was rushed to Littleton Adventist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Dozens of police cars later lined the roadway as a hearse carrying his body was driven from the hospital, while a group of firefighters stood atop their truck on an over- pass and saluted.
The other wounded cops — Douglas County Sheriff ’s Deputies Mike Doyle, 28, Taylor Davis, 30, and Jeffery Pelle, 32, and Castle Rock Officer Tom O’Donnell, 41 — are expected to survive.
Steven Silknitter, who lives in the Copper Canyon Apartments, was at a loss over the bloodshed.
“Where do you move to? [Gun violence] is everywhere,” Silknitter told the Denver Post, recalling that he used to live in Aurora, Colo., not far from the movie-theater massacre there in 2012.
A GoFundMe page for Parrish’s family had raised more than $150,000 by early Monday.