It was Denver police officer Daniel Swanson who encountered Thomas Charles Armstrong about 1 a.m. Friday and struggled with him for four minutes as “blows were exchanged in both directions,” Police Chief Gerry Whitman said Tuesday.
Swanson is assigned to the District 3 station and was the first officer to the scene in east Denver, Whitman said. For four minutes, before another officer arrived, Swanson fought to subdue Armstrong, who Whitman said attacked Swanson from the moment the officer stepped out of his squad car.
“They were involved in a fight which included rolling around on the pavement,” Whitman said. The encounter near the intersection of 11th Avenue and Xenia Street left Armstrong, 37, with severe injuries and triggered allegations of police brutality from Armstrong’s family, including his brother, Earl Armstrong, a longtime police critic.
Earl Armstrong called the police accounts “bogus” and said he will produce a witness who will tell a different story. He said his brother, in critical condition Tuesday at University of Colorado Hospital, suffered internal injuries and facial cuts and bruises.
Thomas Armstrong stopped breathing some time after Swanson and other officers subdued him, and the officers used cardiopulmonary resuscitation to revive him, police said.
The encounter is under investigation by the Denver Police Department and the district attorney’s office, and it will be reviewed by the city’s independent police monitor, Richard Rosenthal.
Whitman contends that the injuries described by the family are not consistent with what investigators know about the incident. Because of medical privacy laws, Whitman said, investigators have not yet obtained access to Armstrong’s medical information.
Walter Gerash, a Denver criminal attorney who has represented plaintiffs in high-profile lawsuits, said he is investigating the case on behalf of the Armstrong family.
“A person cannot be beat upon … to that extent without being brutalized,” Gerash said.
One witness to the incident, Gerash said, saw an officer on a handcuffed man’s back holding something to the man’s head, either a pistol or Mace.
“We’re hoping for some type of legal support,” Earl Armstrong said Tuesday. “Accountability will take a jury.”
After the four-minute struggle between Swanson and Thomas Armstrong, officer Jarrod Foust, showed up, followed by Aurora officer John Christy, and Foust and Christy helped Swanson subdue Armstrong, Whitman said.In a subsequent report, Christy said Armstrong was still kicking his legs as the Denver officers held him face down to the ground by the upper arms. Christy described striking Armstrong repeatedly in the back of both legs to force him to bend his knees, then holding Armstrong’s legs in a bent position to immobilize him.
After an officer relieved Christy at his position, Christy stood up and engaged officer Matt Whetstone in conversation, he said. After officers continued to restrain Armstrong for “several minutes,” Christy said, he heard one of them say Armstrong had stopped breathing. Armstrong was unhandcuffed and rolled onto his back so the officers could administer CPR, Christy’s report said.
Denver firefighters were called to the scene at 1:11 a.m. They arrived four minutes later and took over CPR, said Denver Fire Lt. Phil Champagne.
Police Protective Association president Mike Mosco said he was concerned that it took four minutes for backup to arrive. “There is no reason any officer should have to wait four minutes to get covered,” he said, blaming the problem on a shortage of officers.
Lori Sykes, a woman who lives near the scene of the incident, has an account that conflicts somewhat with what police and Armstrong’s relatives have said. She contends Armstrong was on the ground crying for help in an alley behind Xenia Street before officers arrived and that the struggle with police occurred in the alley. Police and family members say the incident occurred on 11th Avenue near Xenia Street and that Armstrong was upright and running around when police encountered him.
Police say Armstrong appeared under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The Armstrong family acknowledged that Armstrong drinks and uses marijuana but asserts that medical tests showing cocaine in his blood and urine were manipulated by police. Court records show Armstrong was found guilty three times of having a glass crack pipe in his pocket.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
