Police shot man wrongly identified as jail escapee

Three Denver Police Department officers mistakenly thought they were pursuing a jail escapee on Monday night when they fired shots into an SUV with two men inside.

The passenger in the car had been identified as Mauricio Venzor-Gonzalez, a man who previously has shot at police officers, said Commander Barb Archer, head of the department’s major crimes division. Venzor-Gonzalez had escaped custody from Denver Sheriff Department deputies during a medical transport Monday morning.

Venzor-Gonzalez was not in the car.

Instead, officers killed 27year-old Steven Nguyen and wounded 23-year-old Rafael Landeros in the shooting, Archer said Thursday.

Even though police shot the wrong person, Archer said she believes the shooting was justified because the officers reasonably believed they were pursuing VenzorGonzalez. The people in the car did not follow officers’ orders and appeared to be searching for something as officers yelled for them to show their hands, she said.

“Officers knew that Venzor-Gonzalez had been arrested in November for attempting to kill a police officer,” Archer said. “They believed the actions being made inside the car were efforts to locate a weapon. So fearing for their safety the officers fired.”

The shooting, which happened near East 40th Avenue and Albion Street, remains under investigation by the Denver District Attorney, Denver police and Aurora Police Department. District Attorney Beth McCann ultimately decides whether a police shooting is justified under state law. The police department’s internal affairs bureau will investigate whether officers followed department policies in the pursuit and shooting and why the men in the car had been incorrectly identified.

After the shooting, officers found a loaded handgun in the car.

The officers, who have not been identified, have been placed on desk duty, Archer said. Police declined to release body camera footage of the shooting.

Landeros is being held at the Downtown Detention Center on arrest warrants out of Adams County, Archer said. Investigators have not determined whether he will be charged in connection with the incident Monday night, she said.

Meanwhile, Venzor-Gonzalez remains on the lam. Police consider him to be dangerous, and a manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies is ongoing. Venzor-Gonzalez engaged in a shootout with a Denver police officer in November after a car chase.

At the time, Venzor-Gonzalez was wanted for abducting a woman and her toddler. During the shootout, Venzor-Gonzalez was struck multiple times and was at-large for two days before police found him inside an Aurora home with high-powered weapons.

“He’s a very dangerous individual,” Archer said. “He remains our top priority. The community isn’t safe with him out there.”