Police: Officer shoots, injures armed man

A Westminster police officer Thursday morning shot and injured an armed man seen dragging his exwife out of an apartment complex, police said.

A woman called 911 at 9:20 a.m. to report that her ex-husband had stolen her handgun Wednesday and then called Thursday morning and threatened to kill her, police spokeswoman Cheri Spottke said. While she was on the phone with 911, the man showed up at the house.

The 911 dispatcher heard a struggle. As cops arrived, they saw a man dragging a woman out of an apartment building at West 71st Avenue and Hooker Street. He was pointing a gun at her, Spottke said.

One officer fired an unknown number of bullets, striking the man, she said. The man attempted to run from the scene but was detained and taken to a hospital for treatment.

The man was in stable condition Thursday afternoon, according to a news release. The woman was treated on scene for her injuries, and no officers were injured.

The woman told police that her ex-husband was on parole, Spottke said.

The shooting will be investigated by the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office to determine whether the officer had legal grounds for shooting the man.

Thursday morning’s police shooting was the second this month in Westminster and the fourth so far this year in the city.

The Westminster police SWAT unit shot and injured a man on Sept. 18 while serving a search warrant on the 7100 block of Hooker Street, just down the street from the shooting Thursday.

Thursday’s shooting is the 47th incident this year in Colorado in which a person has been killed or wounded in an altercation with law enforcement. Before Thursday’s shooting in Westminster, the most recent incident occurred Sept. 20 in Lakewood. A man died in that shooting.