Good Samaritan who shot gunman was killed by cop

A bystander who intervened in the shooting of a police officer in Colorado on Monday by shooting the gunman was himself fatally shot by a responding police officer, authorities said.

The police department in Arvada, just outside Denver, shared a timeline Friday that outlined what the police chief, Link Strate, described as a tragic sequence of events that resulted in the deaths of a good Samaritan and a police officer.

The police said they responded to a call of a suspicious person at Arvada’s Olde Town, a district with shops, restaurants and bars, on Monday afternoon.

A teenager had reported that an older man had walked up to him, “made a weird noise, and showed them a condom,” Strate said in a video.

Officer Gordon Beesley encountered the man, identified by the authorities as Ronald Troyke, 59, who had a shotgun. Police said Troyke ran after Beesley and shot him twice, adding that Beesley did not reach for his gun or have time to defend himself.

Beesley was “brutally ambushed and murdered by someone who expressed hatred for police officers,” Strate said. “What happened next is equally tragic.”

Troyke went to his truck to retrieve an AR15, police said. He then returned to the square, where he was confronted by the bystander, Johnny Hurley, 40, who shot him with a handgun, according to the police.

“Almost immediately after” Hurley shot Troyke, a responding officer encountered Hurley, who was now holding the AR15, and shot him, Strate said.

“We lost two heroes on June 21,” Strate said, referring to Hurley and Beesley, who had been with the department for 19 years.

Strate said Hurley’s actions saved lives and what he did “can only be described as decisive, courageous and effective.”

“Mr. Hurley intervened in an active shooting that unfolded quickly,” Strate said. “He did so without hesitation.”

The authorities did not identify who had shot Hurley.

After the shooting, the police said investigators found a document written by Troyke in which he stated that his goal was to “kill as many Arvada officers” as possible and that “hundreds of you pigs should be killed daily.”

A GoFundMe page for Hurley’s family said he lived and worked in Colorado his whole life.