Thornton police officers who shot and killed a man who injured a police sergeant in March were cleared of wrongdoing by the district attorney’s office.
The 17th Judicial District Attorney Dave Young signed a letter Wednesday stating that an investigation into the shooting found no proof that the officers committed any crimes.
The when Thornton Police Department Sergeant Pat Long stopped a vehicle that was driving without headlights in an RTD Park-n-Ride lot at 8703 Grant St. and parked next to a storage unit in the lot.
Long approached the vehicle and made contact with the driver, who told the officer he borrowed his sister’s car to go get a copy of Westword and didn’t have a driver’s license.
When the officer went back to his car and was checking the man’s record, the driver of the car got out of his vehicle and walked up to Long’s patrol car with a shotgun.Long “leaned over and ducked below the windshield to avoid being hit,” according to the district attorney’s letter. Seeing the man continue to fire shots and walking closer to the patrol car, Long put the car in reverse to “get out of the kill zone,” according to what he told investigators.
The shooter then got back in his car and fled, but he encountered another police officer responding to the shooting as he was leaving the parking lot.
Two responding officers chased the suspect vehicle briefly until the man stopped his car and got out of the vehicle with the shotgun. Sgt. Long drove the short distance to the area, and exchanged gunfire with the suspect, as did the two responding officers.
The officers killed the suspect later identified as 51-year-old Daven Hannu. A toxicology report during the autopsy revealed Hannu had a blood-alcohol level of 0.129 percent and tested positive for marijuana.
According to the district attorney office’s investigation, physical evidence corroborated witness statements.
There was no video footage of the incident as the RTD were not working, and none of the officers had dashboard or body cameras.
Long suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the right side of his neck, left upper arm, left side of his torso and left hand.
“Foreign particles identified as BBs from the shotgun rounds were located in his neck and left abdomen,” the letter states. He was treated at a hospital and released.
