An Army veteran who fired on an intruder in his Colorado home was fatally shot by a police officer responding to the scene, authorities said.
The Aurora Police Department said officers arrived to a “very chaotic and violent” scene early Monday around 1:30 a.m. as they were responding to multiple 911 calls about a disturbance in the area of North Iola Street and East Montview Boulevard.
In a post on the department’s website, Police Chief Nick Metz said the dispatch center also had gotten a 911 call from a woman inside a home on East Montview Boulevard that a man “was breaking into her home.”
“An officer discharged his firearm striking the armed male, who was transported to the hospital,” Metz said. “Inside, officers found an injured juvenile and the deceased adult male intruder on the bathroom floor.”
Metz said the armed man died at the hospital. The juvenile was taken to a hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Metz said the injuries had been caused by the intruder.
He said the names of the victims as well as the alleged intruder would be released by the Adams County Coroner’s Office.
The armed man, however, was identified as Richard “Gary” Black Jr. by Siddhartha Rathod, a lawyer representing his family’s estate.
Rathod told ABC News “a naked man kicked down the door to the house, entered the house, and was found choking Black Jr.’s 11-year-old grandson,” strangling the boy in the bathtub. That boy’s father, Black’s stepson, went in and began wrestling with the naked man. Both he and Black were trying to save the boy.
“Mr. Black goes and gets his sidearm and shoots the intruder and saves his grandson,” Rathod said. “Mr. Black walks out of the bathroom to see other individuals who had also come in the home. Black’s wife had called the police and ran outside. She specifically told the police what her husband was wearing and there was a naked man attacking her grandson. Mr. Black walks out and is shot by police.”
According to the lawyer, Black left the Army and became a federal agent. Prior to that, he was awarded a Bronze Star, with the first oak leaf cluster, an Army Combination Medal and a Purple Heart. Rathod said Black received all commendations for his service in the First Infantry Division simultaneously while at an Army hospital during the Vietnam War.
Black was a member of the Citadel Class of 1966, according to Kim Keeler of the Citadel’s media relations.
“This is a very heartbreaking and tragic situation for everyone involved,” said Metz, the Aurora police chief. “We are providing assistance through our victim advocates to help the family of the deceased resident through this very difficult time.”
The officer involved was placed on administrative reassignment with pay, per the department’s policy. The police department said it would be holding a news conference later this week to give more information about the incident.
The Aurora Police Major Crimes Unit as well as the Denver Police Department and the 17th Judicial District DA’s Office are handling the investigation into the incident.
The 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said the facts of the investigation would be presented to the Office of the District Attorney for a determination of whether criminal charges should be filed against any involved person.
“In an effort to preserve this ongoing investigation, the Office of the District Attorney has requested that the Aurora Police Department not release any additional details at this time,” the office said in a statement.
At the very least I hope his family sues that fucking town into bankruptcy. They use the same con over and over again to justify murder: I feared for my life. No shit yellow belly. If you don’t want to be in fearful situations get the fuck out of that uniform and get a job at a hair salon. It only gets worse and worse.
Dam right Cc Rider. Getting tired of this crap. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen!
It’s a nice thought, but the family of that guy who got swatted in Nebraska had their claims denied and it doesn’t get any more blatant than that.
“The officer involved was placed on administrative reassignment with pay, per the department’s policy. ”
= Paid vacation!
“She specifically told the police what her husband was wearing and there was a naked man attacking her grandson. Mr. Black walks out and is shot by police.”
Lesson learned:
Never ever call the police for any reason! When the police arrive, things ALWAYS go worse.
Yep. The silly bitch of a mother ran outside and called 911. Her father and her husband were inside taking care of business. Why the fuck did she think she needed moronic, frightened cops on the scene?
My wife wouldn’t call the cops in such a situation. She’d pick up the gun herself and shoot the fucker. No gun, she’d gut him with a knife. Good girl.
Oh yeah, I liked the fact that he was a “federal agent”. Maybe it’s not so bad.
They even be shootin’ old white dudes.
I am reposting this as it is especially relevant in this situation as well as others:
No One Cares If You Go Home Safe At The End Of Your Shift
Jan 02, 201812:50AM
Category: Politics
Posted by: Michael Z. Williamson
Here at the house, I have a couple of decades plus of military experience. I have tools to dig in or out of natural disasters. I have extinguishers and hoses. I have a field trauma kit and bandages. I have weapons both melee and firearm. I know how to use them. I know how to trench, support and revet. I understand the fire triangle and appropriate approaches. I understand breathing, bleeding and shock. I know how to detain, restrain and control. I have done all of these at least occasionally, professionally. I’ve stood on top of a collapsing levee in a flood. I’ve fought a structure fire from inside so we could get everyone out before the fire department showed up, which only took two minutes, but people can die that fast. I’ve had structures collapse while I was working on them. I’ve been in an aircraft that had a “mechanical” on approach and had to be repaired in-flight before landing. I’ve helped control a brush fire. I’ve hauled disabled vehicles out of ditches in sub-zero weather.
My ex wife has over a decade of service and some of the same training.
We have trained our young adult children.
My wife is a rancher who knows her way around a shotgun, livestock, sutures and tools, hurricanes and floods, and works in investigations professionally.
Our current houseguest is another veteran.
This means if anything happens at the house–and last year we had a lightning strike, a tornado and a flood within 10 days–we’re pretty well prepared.
Now, we’re probably better off than 95% of the households out there. The level of disaster that necessitates backup varies.
If we find it necessary to call 911, it means the party is in progress and it’s bad.
You will probably not be going home safe at the end of your shift.
And you know what? If it gets to that point, I really don’t give a shit. I don’t give a shit if you get smoked. I don’t give a shit if you fall under a tree. I don’t give a shit if you get shot at.
Because at that point, I’ve done everything I can with that same circumstance, and run out of resources.
If my concern was “you going home safe,” then I’d just fucking hunker down and die. Because I wouldn’t want that poor responder to endanger himself.
Except…that’s what I pay taxes for, and that’s what you signed up for. Just like I signed up to walk into a potential nuke war in Germany and hold off the Soviets, and did walk into the Middle East and prepare to take fire while keeping expensive equipment functioning so our shooters could keep shooting.
There’s not a single set of orders I got that said my primary job was to “Come home safe.” They said it was to “support the mission” or “complete the objective.” Coming home safe was the ideal outcome, but entirely secondary to “supporting” or “completing.” Nor, once that started, did I get a choice to quit. Once in, all in.
When that 80 year old lady smells smoke or hears a noise outside her first floor bedroom in the ghetto, she doesn’t care if you go home safe, either. She’s afraid she or the kids next door won’t wake up in the morning.
If I call, I expect your ass to show up, sober, trained, professional. I expect you to wade in with me or in place of me, and drag a child out of a hole, or out from a burning room, or actually stand up and block bullets from hitting said child, because by the time you get there, I’ll have already done all that. And there will be field dressings, chainsawed trees, buckets and empty brass scattered about.
I don’t want to hear some drunk and confused guy squirming on the ground playing “Simon Says” terrified you so much you had to blow him away. I don’t want to hear that some random guy 35 yards away who you had no actual information on “may have reached toward his waist band. Or that “the tree might fall any moment” or that “the smoke makes it hard to see.”
Near as I can tell, I don’t hear the smokejumpers, or the firefighters, or the disaster rescue people say such things.
But it’s all I ever hear from the cops. If you and your five girlfriends in body armor, with rifles, are that terrified of actually risking your life for the theoretically dangerous job you volunteered for and can quit any time, then please do quit.
You can get a job doing pest control and go home safe every night.
Until a bunch of fucking pussies with big tattoos, small dicks, body armor and guns blow you away for minding your own business.
Because what you’re telling me with that statement is, your only concern is cashing a check. That’s fine. But if that’s your concern, don’t pretend you’re serving the public. If you wanted to help people at risk of life, you would be a firefighter, running into buildings, dragging people out, getting scorched regularly.
If you’re cool with writing tickets, then there’s jobs where you can do just that.
If you want to tangle with bad guys and blow them away, fair enough. But understand: That means they get to shoot first to prove their intent, just as happens with the military these days. Our ROE these days are usually “only if fired upon and no civilians are at risk.”
If your plan is “shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, then if anyone is still alive try to ask questions,” and bleat, “But I was afeard fer mah lahf!” you’re absolutely no better than the thugs you claim to oppose. All you are is another combatant in a turf war I don’t care about.
Since I know your primary concern is “being safe,” then I’ll do you the favor of not calling. Cash your welfare check, and try not to shoot me at a “courtesy” sobriety checkpoint for twitching my eye “in a way that suggested range estimation.”
If you’re one of the vanishingly few cops who isn’t like that, then what the hell are you doing about it? If there’s going to be a lawsuit costing the city millions, isn’t it better that it be a labor suit from the union over the clown you fired, than a wrongful death suit over the poor bastard the clown shot? Both are expensive, but one has a dead victim you enabled. So how much do you actually care about that life?
How is the training so bad that it’s not clear who is the scene commander who gives the orders?
How is it that trigger happy bozos who, out of costume, look no different from the gangbangers you claim to oppose, get sent up front to fulfill their wish of hosing someone down because “I was afraid for my life!”?
Why does the rot exist in your department?
If you can’t do anything about it, why are you still in that department?
At some point, collective guilt is a thing.
You’ve probably not been a good cop for a long time.
And I still don’t care if you go home safe. I care that everyone you purport to “serve and protect” goes home safe.
This is your best post by far.
best comment i have read this year.
Wow… we have a lot of life experiences in common.
No mention of cops affinity for taxpayer-funded steroids? This is just one of the larger cases where they where actually exposed.
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/12/hundreds_of_nj_police_firefigh.html
Cops motto. Shoot first. Don’t matter cause I get paid while on suspencion. Cream of the crop people.
Most cops these days are closet liberal politically correct just doing my job minions . The very type of people socialist totalitarian government shit bags want . These are the types who found themselves in a cell at Nuremberg waiting for a rope to dangle from .
Heroes !!!!!!! Or first responders. Or whatever feel good bullshit that TPTB feed us.
Each must take care of his own. If your mortgage, car and family living standards mean more to you than your wrongfully slain blood, then that’s the truth of it. I come from a different place and time. In mid 20th century Virginia we were taught that honor once lost, could never be regained. God have mercy on anyone, cop or not, that draws the blood of my blood wrongfully.
We don’t know the officer. We don’t know all the circumstances. Some, maybe most of us, have never been in a real “shoot, no shoot” incident. I have not. All we “know” is that some cops are incompetent shooters and authoritarian assholes with a god complex that deserve the worst outcomes we can imagine. That may not be true of this officer. We just don’t know.
i am going to relax and send my condolences to Mrs. Black and see how this plays out. There is time aplenty to be pissed off. Mr. Black must be laid to rest with honor. Mr. Black did what all of us hope we would do in that situation. Let’s praise him and his stepson and be thankful that they saved the child.
However this plays out legally, there can be little dispute that the involved officer failed his/her oath to protect and serve and nominally must be removed from this profession. There are no second chances. Whether he/she is guilty of any criminal action is for the court to determine.
Best to all. Take care.
Joe
Another apologist for the corrupt system preaching the don’t get upset, until we have had a chance to whitewash the event. Anarchyst is right, there is no honor in the police today, they are pathetic and self serving cowards with their own self preservation as their primary concern.
Mr. Jdog,
What, precisely, would you suggest be done?
Joe
The primary problem in law enforcement is that it is designed to serve the corporations and their whores in government, and not the public.
Before the problems of law enforcement can be tackled, we must first regain our rightful place as the masters of our government.
Before that can happen, the public must educate themselves as to why the system is broken in the first place.
As a people, we get what government we deserve. At this point we are being shot down by the people we hire to protect us because we fail as Citizens to do our duty to ourselves, and our country.
When in a confrontation don’t call the police until your done. The police are automatons. You have a gun and you are a target. The police don’t think. They act. That is their training.
People are stupid; including the rich. I don’t know what happened to america. Common sense and rational thinking are gone. And the rich seem to have the least common sense. Anyone who buys a $400,000 house in an HOA that is built with far less quality than a $20,000 house built in the 1960s is got to be dumber than a pack mule.
My 2 cents in my old age. Guess I’m ready to check out of this insane society. My advice to young people is get out while you can. Migrate to a country that has a vision of the future. This country has no vision or no future. How is it that we accept immigrants with no skills and only suck off the tit of the state? And stupid people are demonstrating for these worthless people to come here?
We are fast becoming a failed country. Not the first time in history for this to happen.
I imagine body cam footage will shed more light on the circumstances of this shooting. I’m wanting to see it.
I hope this cop is eventually found guilty of at least manslaughter. It should be a higher crime. He should have to spend up close and personal time with bubba and his buddies. After he serves his time, he should be completely unemployable, and have to live under a bridge. A bullet in the head is too good for this scumbag.
I’m conservative and support the law and the rule of law, but s**t like this has to stop. Making an extreme example of a couple of cops that shoot innocent people should help. If not, we’re all potential victims. I really hope this assclown gets the MAXIMUM punishment he deserves.
This is a rank crime, and should not go unpunished.
I believe something is being missed here.
95+% cops patrolling the streets and highways in 2018 are MILLENNIALS!
MILLENNIALS raised on video games, steroids, and goobermint educations.
Speechless…
https://kdvr.com/2018/08/01/stepson-of-man-killed-by-aurora-police-says-intruder-was-choking-biting-his-11-year-old-son/
White Lives Matter… I’m going to start kneeling during the National Anthem until the cops stop killing white men.
“The police officer who fatally shot Black has not been identified, but police said he also killed a suspect in a shooting in June.”
This is the “officer’s” second shooting in 2 months?!?
When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Police training is and has been badly corrupted. Slow down, observe then make good decisions. The “shoot, don’t shoot” training that I’ve been through several times never allows for taking cover or approaching from cover. It’s all been designed to keep police alive at all costs which includes more and more often the life of the innocent they are tasked to protect…..and their dogs just in case.
Hmmmmm….never shot one of my team on any combat op. Never shot any other allied soldiers we came to reinforce. How does this happen? They had a description of the intruder, naked, and the description of the homeowner, yet they managed to shoot and kill the homeowner. Here is another fact: We consistently run into non-combatants when clearing buildings and manage not to kill them. Sounds to me like the police need MUCH more training and I would be very interested in their rules of engagement, that seem in many cases to ALWAYS justify an officer when they are wrong.
Another sad example of this:
If we had done the same thing to a non-combatant in Iraq, we would all be in prison and that is a fact:
I rode the MetroLink in each day and knew Kelly Thomas. He would pick the aluminum cans from the trash around the area. One day he noticed a rider left an iPad on the bench to catch the train so he grabbed it and ran up and gave it to him. Kelly Thomas was never a threat, yet he met his end one day and was beaten to death by Fullerton police:
It seems to me that the police may be covered by rules of engagement that are so loose that anything is covered. They are morally wrong and as a veteran combat leader, these guys scare the hell out of me. So what have I learned? I will always take out my own trash and never call the police to do so unless it is a last resort.
LEO’s these days are MUCH more aggressive.