Salida police officers shot and killed a retired corrections officer who pointed a handgun at them after his wife called 911 to get help for his bout with diabetic shock.
Kenneth Clark, 60, described as a pillar of the community, died early Sunday during a confrontation in his home with officers Shane Garcia and Marc Morris.
“A preliminary review shows that they were acting well within their authority,” said Chaffee County Sheriff Tim Walker. “It turned sour very quick and left them with little option.”
Walker, who said Clark was a friend whom he had enlisted in the department’s reserve-officer program, is looking into the shooting along with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
The incident began just after 4 a.m. Sunday, when Clark’s wife, Nancy, called 911 to report that her husband was suffering from a diabetes-induced blood- sugar imbalance and was armed with a pistol.
When the officers arrived, they found Clark belligerent and aggressive, waving a handgun and refusing to cooperate with their orders.
“The officers … spent a number of minutes trying to de-escalate the situation, but he became more aggressive and very agitated,” said Salida Police Chief Mark Mathies.
At that point, Clark is reported to have pointed his gun at the officers, prompting them to shoot him. He died at the scene.
An unidentified family member reached at Clark’s home Monday declined to comment.
Law-enforcement officials in the small Arkansas Valley community were distraught by the news.
“We’re all totally in shock today. … This is just terrible,” Walker said. “This man grew up in Salida, served a career in the Department of Corrections in this area and was just respected by everybody that knew him.”
The officers, each of whom has been with the department for a couple of years and is considered “fully competent and very capable” by their chief, have been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the shooting investigation.
Chaffee County Coroner Randy Amettis said preliminary autopsy results would probably be available today.
Nationally, there have been numerous cases of people in diabetic shock being accused of drunken driving or subdued by police for not responding to their commands.
Most diabetics control their illness with insulin and other drugs or through diet and careful monitoring of their blood-sugar levels, and incidence of trouble is rare, said Shereen Arent, national legal director for the American Diabetes Association.
Although standard police training in Salida and across the country now includes tips on recognizing the signs of “organic stress” such as mental illness and diabetic shock, authorities contend that those conditions can’t trump public safety or the ability to use lethal force.
“It would be beyond my expertise to talk about how police could deal with a situation like that,” Arent said.
“For whatever combination of issues, they weren’t able to treat it as a medical situation. … We want to try to help people get the diabetes care and training that can help them avoid these situations.”
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
