Two men killed by police gunfire when they tried to ram an occupied Adams County patrol car had stolen two vehicles the night of the fatal shooting, a letter clearing the officers said.
The men killed in the early hours of Feb. 27, in the parking lot of Paulino Gardens in unincorporated Adams County, were Jose Banuelos, 22, and Juan Arteaga, 21.
Banuelos was driving the stolen Ford F250 and Arteaga was a passenger. The third person in the truck, Alonzo Banuelos, Jose’s cousin, survived.
According to Adams County District Attorney Don Quick, two officers — Westminster police Officer David Galbraith and Adams County sheriff’s Deputy Doug Kelsay — were justified in firing 19 shots at the F250 when it drove directly at a third officer, Sgt. Scott Miller, seated in an Adams County patrol car.
In a letter to Westminster Police Chief Lee Birk and Adams County Sheriff Doug Darr, Quick said the F250 had been boxed in by patrol cars from several jurisdictions.
However, the occupants, instead of surrendering to officers, rammed patrol cars with the truck, broke out of the encirclement and headed for the Adams County patrol car occupied by Miller.
Quick said the officers had just engaged in a high-speed pursuit of the F250. When boxed in, the driver aggressively tried to get out of the predicament and was headed straight for the Adams County sergeant.
“These officers reasonably believed that the truck was being maneuvered into a position in which the driver could kill or seriously injure the officers,” Quick said. “This truck had rammed the law enforcement vehicles multiple times. This truck was made to climb over the police vehicles in an effort to escape.”
The two officers who opened fire believed their lives were in danger as well as the life of the officer in the patrol car in the direct path of the F250, Quick said. As a result, they were justified in using deadly physical force.
According to Quick, the events of the night began when a 2002 Dodge Durango was stolen and officers from several jurisdictions picked up the signal from an anti-theft device in the vehicle.
Over the next couple of hours, officers spotted the Durango but eventually lost it.
The surviving passenger in the F250, Alonzo Banuelos, told investigators that he and his two companions stole the Durango but later abandoned it and stole the F250.
Alonzo Banuelos said he tried to talk his cousin, Jose, into giving up, but his cousin replied with a profanity and said he had no intention of surrendering.
Jose Banuelos was shot four times, one hitting him in the head. Arteaga was shot once — a bullet that penetrated his heart.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
