A 34-year-old man was found guilty of shooting at police officers during a four-hour standoff, during which he held his wife and three young children inside their Lakewood home in January.
David Thomas Orton was found guilty of 84 counts on Monday, including three counts of attempted murder after deliberation and three counts of attempted murder with extreme indifference, according to a news release from the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office.
On Jan. 7, Orton and his wife, Taryn Orton, and their three small children, ages 2, 4 and 5-months-old, were inside their home at 1370 Kline St.
An argument between Orton and his wife continued to escalate throughout the night. At 10 p.m., Taryn Orton called a neighbor and told her she was worried about her husband’s behavior and reported he was drunk.
The neighbor, who knew about earlier incidents of domestic violence in the home, heard David Orton yelling in the background and decided to call police.
Orton was yelling that he would kill police officers if the arrived at the home, and his wife told the neighbor he had a loaded gun.
When officers arrived at the home, Orton was on the porch holding a rifle. Soon after, he shot the rifle at the ceiling over the porch.
Officers ordered Orton to put the gun down. He refused and shot at officers, who fired back.
Additional officers arrived on scene and ordered Orton to put the gun down, but he continued to ignore them. At one point during the standoff, Orton was lying on his stomach in the home’s entryway, aiming his gun at officers.
At about 10:30 p.m., officers shot at and wounded Orton. He stumbled back into the home, and his wife ran outside to police.
The three children were still inside the house.
Orton refused to come out of the house until 3 a.m., when officers entered the home and found him in a basement bathroom and arrested him.
The children were removed from the home unharmed.
Police found three weapons inside the house. The weapons violated Orton’s probation, the result of an earlier domestic violence case.
During the standoff, Orton shot at 13 Lakewood police officers.
Orton will be sentenced on Dec. 12 at 3:30 p.m., in Division 8 of the Jefferson County Court.
