The officers who fired 16 rounds at a man after a high-speed police chase in Longmont last month were justified in their actions and will not be prosecuted, the Boulder County district attorney concluded in a report released Monday.
District Attorney Stan Garnett wrote that the four officers — three Longmont police officers and one Boulder County sheriff’s deputy — who fired at Brian Christopher Naranjo, 35, in the early morning hours of Aug. 10 did so only after Naranjo lifted a handgun as he sat behind the wheel of his Honda Accord.
Police said Naranjo had led officers on a 20-minute chase through Longmont before being stopped by a patrol vehicle at the intersection of Emery Street and Third Avenue.
Garnett’s report stated that officers repeatedly told Naranjo to show his hands after several said they saw him picking up a gun from the console of his car.
“Longmont police officer (Bruce) Pettitt saw Mr. Naranjo turn around and make eye contact with him. Mr. Naranjo then twice said, ‘I can’t (or won’t) go back to jail,’ ” the report states.
Other officers told investigators that Naranjo repeatedly said “do it, do it” or “Just do it, just do it” during the standoff, according to the report.
Garnett’s report said the coroner found 11 gunshot wounds to Naranjo’s body: four to the head, two to the neck, one to the right shoulder and four in the upper back.
At least half the wounds likely would have been fatal, the Boulder County Coroner’s Office concluded.
The report said the four officers fired a total of 16 rounds at Naranjo just seconds after Boulder County Sgt. Ja son Oehl kers fired a beanbag at Naranjo’s front window.
Naranjo was found with a fully loaded Taurus .22-caliber eight-shot revolver that had not been fired, the report said.
An autopsy revealed a significant level of methamphetamine in his system.
