DA: Officer’s shooting, killing of suspect justified

A Colorado Springs police officer who shot and killed a domestic violence suspect in May has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing, the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office ruled.

Officer Christopher Laabs was justified in shooting Sean Collins, who had barricaded himself in an apartment and then exited the apartment shooting at officers. The shooting followed several hours of negotiations and chemical munitions, according to the letter.

Officer Jennifer Fleury responded to a domestic violence call at 5:27 p.m. May 18 at an apartment in the 4200 block of Forrest Hill Road.

A woman told the officer that Collins had threatened to kill her with guns and knives and had hit her in the head with a shotgun, according to the letter. He also tried to take her baby daughter away.

Collins refused to come out of the apartment and cooperate, so other officers arrived and attempted to negotiate with him. He told them via text that he didn’t want to leave the apartment and go back to prison, the letter said.

The police department’s tactical enforcement unit then responded to the scene with its armored vehicle and stationed officers around the apartment, according to the DA.

Police told Collins through the loudspeaker and through continued negotiations that if he surrendered, he wouldn’t get hurt. But he continued to refuse, and at about 9:06 p.m., police used a device on the outside of the apartment that made a loud noise and flashed a bright light, according to the letter.

Collins responded by firing two shots from his shotgun out of the left front window of the apartment as well as multiple shots from a handgun, the letter stated. At least one round hit the driver’s side window of the BearCat, and an officer was struck by shrapnel. Police then fired chemical munitions into the apartment.

Two women with two young children in a nearby apartment refused to evacuate and didn’t close their windows during the incident and at least two shots fired by Collins ended up in their apartment, according to the letter.

A couple of minutes later when the chemicals spread, Collins exited the apartment while shooting at officers, firing three or four shots, the letter stated. Officers said they could see muzzle flashes from his handgun, but body-camera footage is unclear because of how dark it was, the DA wrote. Still, the shots fired can be heard.

Laabs returned fire, shooting six times and hitting Collins. The suspect dropped on the porch but still didn’t show his hands to officers, so they fired a less-lethal round at him. He did not react, so first responders removed him from the porch. Collins died at the scene.

The coroner determined that two bullets hit Collins in the back and four in the front, according to the letter. Officers found a .40 Taurus revolver in one of his pockets and .40 Glock magazine in another, with 12 rounds of unfired ammunition.

At the scene, they found 12 fired .40 semi-automatic shell casings and two fired shotgun shells. Inside the front door of the apartment, they also found a .40 Glock 23 and a Remington 12 gauge shotgun in the bedroom where he was shooting at officers.

They also found guns and knives that matched what the victim told police he had.