Centennial – A sheriff’s deputy shot a woman wielding a sword Sunday night.
The woman was in stable condition at Swedish Medical Center, and her wounds were not believed to be life threatening, said Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.
Deputies were sent to Glenn Oaks Condominiums in the 7100 block of South Gaylord Street about 6:45 p.m. after several callers reported a domestic-violence incident.
Two deputies arrived and could clearly hear a disturbance in the residence, Robinson said. They knocked on the door and tried to get a response, but the people inside didn’t acknowledge them. They could be heard moving items against the door in an apparent attempt to barricade themselves.
The deputies forced the door open and inside encountered two women.
One listened to the deputies, sat and calmed down.
The other obtained a 9-inch butcher knife from a back bedroom, Robinson said. She advanced toward the deputies in a threatening manner and refused repeated commands to drop the knife, so a deputy fired a Taser at her.
It was “not particularly effective,” Robinson said.
“It fired, but the probes apparently didn’t stick adequately,” he said, adding that the Taser malfunction would be part of the investigation.
The woman brushed off the probes, picked up a 3- to 4-foot sword and moved toward the deputies.
“She came at them swinging,” Robinson said. One of the deputies fired his gun, hitting the woman.
Tom Gorski lives in the building and said he didn’t hear an argument, but he did hear pounding, then what he called a “pop.”
A neighbor who declined to give her name said she heard an argument in the unit that sounded like one woman was locked out and the other wouldn’t let her in.
The, she said, she heard deputies arrive and tell the women if they didn’t open the door, it would be kicked in.
The “police were very patient,” she said, but she heard them break down the door.
“I heard one officer say, ‘put your hands up,’ and, ‘put the knife down,”‘ she said. Then she heard a crack.
She saw one woman carried out on a stretcher, and paramedics helped the other one outside.
Robinson said the second woman was taken to Swedish with superficial knife wounds that appeared to be self-inflicted during the domestic violence dispute.
He didn’t know the relationship of the women, although he believed they both lived in the condo. Their names were not released, and no one else was inside at the time.
The deputies involved were put on leave pending an investigation by the critical incident team of the 18th Judicial District, which is standard in such cases.
Charges are likely against the woman who threatened the deputies.
Staff writer Jim Kirksey can be reached at 303-820-1448 or jkirksey@denverpost.com.
