A 25-year-old man was sentenced this morning to three years’ probation and 155 days in jail for firing a shotgun outside a Greeley home, which resulted in him being shot by a police officer.
Justin Berry of LaSalle, who already has served the jail term, pleaded guilty last month to felony possession of a dangerous weapon, according to a media release from the Weld County District Attorney’s Office.
The incident happened last Sept. 19 when Greeley police received reports of a man shooting a firearm in the 600 block of 13th Avenue.
A police officer in a marked patrol car, in uniform and armed with an AR-15 rifle, arrived and ordered the man, who was now sitting on the front porch of a home, to show his hands.
Instead the man yelled several times and then reached for a shotgun.
The officer fired four rounds and the man ran back into the home. Other officers arrived and later traced a bloody trail down an alley to a shed where they found Berry wounded and bleeding.
Berry’s roommate told investigators the two had earlier been out drinking heavy.
The officer who fired the shots has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the district attorney’s office, which ruled the shooting justified because Berry’s actions had put the officer in danger of serious injury or death.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
