A domestic disturbance exploded into gunfire in an affluent Montrose neighborhood, and when it was over, three police officers and the suspect lay wounded or dying.
Killed late Saturday was Sgt. David Kinterknecht, 41. Wounded were Officers Rodney Ragsdale, 55, and Larry Witte, 23.
Police did not identify the suspect, who was killed, or indicate whether police had shot him or he shot himself.
Beverly Howell, a neighbor who witnessed some of the events at 16915 64.50 Road, said police had gone to the house on domestic-violence calls several times over the past year.
Property records show that the $632,320 home across the road from the Cobble Creek Golf Course is owned by Dennis and Pamela Gurney.
Through a friend, Cindy Gay Dick, Pamela Gurney, 50, declined an interview with The Denver Post on Sunday.
Sheriff’s deputies and police went to the home about 8:30 p.m. Saturday and began talking to the person who reported the incident, according to a police statement.
A man who had locked himself in the garage began shooting, hitting the three police officers, the statement said.
All three officers were taken to Montrose Memorial Hospital. Police Chief Tom Chinn said Sunday that both survivors were doing well.
Jim Howell, Beverly Howell’s husband, said police arrived at the home several hours before the shooting started. He said he was in his bathroom when he heard two or three gunshots.
Beverly Howell said she saw Dennis Gurney, 52, back away from police, his hands above his head, as she looked through her kitchen window.
“Then it looked like he crouched down and went around the back of the garage,” she said.
“There was a lot of chaotic activity, and we heard some shots, and then some more shots,” she said.
Pamela Gurney had told the Howells that she was a victim of domestic abuse, Beverly Howell said.
Tisha Langston Slater, a Vermont resident who was once engaged to the Gurneys’ son, Eric, was shocked to hear of violence at the house.
“His parents took me in,” she said. “His parents were great people. They were always so nice to me.”
Dennis Gurney had been badly burned when he worked on an oil rig that exploded several years ago, Slater said.
“I know that Mr. Gurney had been disfigured in a fire and that he had been depressed,” Beverly Howell said.
Kinterknecht joined the department, which has 43 officers, in 1999 after serving in sheriff’s departments in San Miguel and Montrose counties.
“He is a Montrose boy. He grew up in Montrose; all his roots are here,” said Chinn, the Montrose police chief.
According to the Officer Down Memorial website, Kinterknecht was the second Montrose officer to die in the line of duty.
In April 1983, Officer Larry F. McMaster was shot to death and another officer was twice wounded after they entered a bar where a disturbance had been reported.
In the incident Saturday, Ragsdale was shot three times in his left leg and once in his right, said his daughter-in-law, Victoria Ragsdale.
Doctors operated on him and placed a rod in one leg, she said, adding that he was doing well.
“He has been joking and laughing, and that is a good sign,” Victoria Ragsdale said.
Rodney Ragsdale is a 20-year veteran of law enforcement. He previously served with the Northglenn Police Department and, before that, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, Victoria Ragsdale said.
Rodney Ragsdale moved to Montrose in November.
“He always wanted to live in a mountain town,” his daughter-in-law said.
Witte joined the department about three years ago after graduating from Western State College in Gunnison, where he was a track star, Chinn said.
“He is a very athletic kid,” he said.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the 7th Judicial Critical Incident Team are investigating the incident.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
Joey Bunch contributed to this report.
