Denver police are more leery of adults pointing toy guns at them than children, Chief Gerry Whitman said Monday, two days after an officer shot and killed a man who pointed a replica pistol at him.
Police identified the victim as Roberto Gonzales Jr., 34.
In Saturday’s shooting, officers spotted a stolen Jeep Cherokee and followed it into the Sun Valley public housing complex.
A man got out of the back seat and three of the officers – Sgt. Rick Stern and officers James Medina and Andrew Richmond – confronted him near West 10th Avenue and Clay Way, Whitman said
Gonzales allegedly pulled the fake gun and pointed it at Stern, and all three officers fired, Whitman said.
It is the second time this year that police officers in Colorado shot and killed a suspect who pointed a fake gun at them.
In January, Larimer County sheriff’s deputies killed bank robbery suspect Catherine Cariaso, 56, after she jumped out of her vehicle and pointed what appeared to be a small revolver at the officers.
“In that kind of situation, when someone points a weapon at you, you don’t have the time to determine what it’s made out of or if it’s a real gun,” said Boulder County sheriff’s Division Chief Dennis Hopper, whose office investigated the shooting.
Most of the toy guns that officers see on the street are carried by children or teenagers, and officers are more mindful that it could be fake when they see someone that young carrying a weapon, Whitman said.
There have been attempts to outlaw the manufacture of toy guns on the federal level, Whitman said, but that legislation was never strong enough to get them off the streets or keep them away from criminals.
Initially there was discussion about adding replica firearms to a state amendment passed by voters in 2000 that requires instant background checks at gun shows, but the idea never made it into legislation, said John Head, founder of the lobbying group SAFE Colorado.
“We wanted to be taken seriously, and didn’t want people thinking we were out to make kids get background checks to buy water pistols,” Head said.
