No charges will be filed against four auto-theft task force officers who in Westminster in March, the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said.
The DA’s investigation determined that Meltz ignored the officers’ commands to get down and instead fired two shots, missing the cops but hitting the house directly behind them. Officers fired 21 shots, hitting Meltz 11 times in multiple areas, including the head, neck, back and both legs.
On March 14, Meltz had gone to Cotton Creek Park, near West 112th Avenue and Stuart Street, to play basketball with a friend, according to a letter from the DA’s office to law enforcement chiefs.
, who was driving a stolen Mercedes that officers had previously tagged with a GPS. Meltz walked into the grassy area with a basketball as his 16-year-old friend rode up on a bike, according to the letter.
While the two were talking, officers wearing vests displaying “POLICE” approached, identified themselves and told the two to get on the ground. The 16-year-old immediately got down. Meltz, though, pulled a gun from his waistband, crouched down and pointed the weapon at officers, according to the letter.
Sgt. Matthew Beaudin, Investigator Wes Kartus, Det. Charles Orris and Det. Keith Weimer fired at Meltz. It was later found that the gun Meltz fired was stolen.
Meltz’s father, Tom Meltz, is a Department of Corrections inmate. Police monitored a phone call Tom Meltz made to his father after the shooting during which he said, “Alex would always say that if he ever was in that situation, he would shoot at the cops and that’s exactly what he did.”
