A 30-year-old Platteville man was shot and killed in the trailer park where he lived this morning after he had eluded local police in his Chevy Camaro.
Matthew Lucas Herrera was reportedly sitting in his car in front of his mobile home when a Platteville police officer caught up to him after the 20-minute chase, said Weld County under-sheriff Margie Martinez.
Police said the officer got out of his cruiser and told Herrera to get out of his car. Herrera refused and then drove at the officer, who shot Herrera numerous times, Martinez said.
“They murdered him,” Crystal Eggleston, who lived with Herrera in the trailer park, told 9News. “They took the love of my life. I told them he didn’t have a gun,”
As is a standard procedure, the officer is on leave while outside law enforcement agencies investigate the shooting.
The officer has not been named. Martinez said he was a veteran of law enforcement who has worked for Platteville and other agencies.
The incident began about 6:40 a.m., when the officer responded to a report of a “suspicious vehicle” near Plowshare Lane, Martinez said.
She said Platteville police had other run-ins with Herrera and knew who they were looking for when they approached the car in the Valley Village Mobile Home Court in the 700 block of Grand Avenue.
Herrera has a lengthy arrest record in Morgan, Weld, Boulder and Arapahoe counties, including arrests on as a felony habitual traffic offender, as well as charges related to drunken driving, drugs and car theft, records show.
He was airlifted to the North Colorado Medical Center where he died.
His father, Gilbert Herrera, told 9News his son was hit six times in the barrage.
“Why was he shot so many times?” he said. “There are so many questions. Why couldn’t they have shot his tires out? They took my son from me. It’s not right. We’ll get to the bottom of what happened.”
Platteville is a town of about 2,400 people west of Longmont, about 44 miles from Denver.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
