A discarded cigarette butt that landed on an off-duty Arapahoe County sheriff deputy’s car may have sparked a confrontation that led to a fatal shooting beside U.S. 6.
David Rance Rossiter, 25, of Sheridan, Mont., was killed Friday night at 10:15 p.m. at the highway’s Indiana Street off-ramp, said Steve Davis, Lakewood police spokesman.
Arapahoe County deputy Daniel Montana Jr., 49 – who fired the fatal shot – was treated for facial injuries at a local hospital before he was questioned, booked and released by Lakewood police, Davis said.
Michael Hunter, 24, who was driving the Ford pickup in which Rossiter was riding, was arrested for investigation of drunken driving, he said.
“We will be talking to the Police Department every day to make sure someone is charged,” said Stephanie Kruer, an attorney for Rossiter’s father, Charlie Rossiter.
David Rossiter, his father said, worked for a construction company and was a peacemaker, who stuck up for kids who were bullied, and would have been slow to get into a fight.
“We’re sitting here in limbo trying to understand why our son is gone,” Rossiter said Saturday. “My whole life is in turmoil. I have a void here I don’t think I can fill.”
Davis said Montana pulled up beside Hunter’s pickup and words were exchanged, according to police.
Hunter and Rossiter got out of the pickup and Montana got out of his car. An argument turned into a fight.
“The officer produced a weapon and shot the passenger of the pickup,” Davis said. Montana could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Kruer said she spoke with a police detective investigating the case and learned that a discarded cigarette butt may have led to the confrontation.
She said any peace officer should know the principle of justifiable force.
“If you come at me with your fist, I can not come at you with a knife,” Kruer said. “A police officer is held to an even higher standard.”
In order to justify deadly force, someone being attacked would have to be in mortal fear for his life, not just getting beat in a fight, she said.
Law enforcement officers are also trained to pacify volatile situations, Kruer said.
“He should not have even let a physical confrontation get started,” she said.
Jefferson County prosecutors will decide what charges, if any, to file against Hunter and Montana, Davis said.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office will likely conduct an internal investigation to determine whether the deputy followed the department’s policies in the use of a gun, Davis said.
Capt. Brice Moomaw of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the deputy’s status with the department.
“We are not discussing anything related to this incident,” Moomaw said Saturday.
Montana has been a deputy since 1991 and is working in the detentions division, Davis said.
David Rossiter, who was 6-foot-2 and weighed 250 pounds, had coached junior high school football and was planning to become an apprentice to his electrician father in two weeks, Charlie Rossiter said.
“He’s a Montana boy,” Kruer said. “He is not going to run away from a confrontation if he is attacked.”
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
