DA: Fort Collins police officer cleared in shooting that injured man over Labor Day weekend
The Fort Collins police officer who shot and injured a man while officers tried to arrest the man's father on an outstanding warrant was justified in the shooting, 8th Judicial District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin ruled Wednesday.
McLaughlin's decision comes after an investigation by the Critical Incident Response Team, which investigates police shootings that result in injury or death.
Fort Collins police officer Phillip Selgren was legally justified in defending himself and another officer when he shot and injured an 18-year-old who allegedly pointed a gun at officers while they were trying to arrest the man's father — who was wanted on an outstanding felony warrant — in an incident at an apartment complex in southeast Fort Collins on Sept. 2, McLaughlin said in his letter.
Here's what CIRT investigators say happened leading up to the shooting, according to McLaughlin's letter:
Selgren responded to a reported disturbance at an apartment in the complex about 11 a.m. involving a woman and her ex-husband, who police said had a warrant out for his arrest. When Selgren arrived, he spoke with the woman who told him her ex-husband dropped off their 18-year-old son — who was the man later shot by police — and left. Police believed the man was still there because his vehicle was still in the parking lot with the doors open and items on the ground around it.
Officers spoke with the son in the doorway of his mother's second-floor apartment, and officers asked him if his father was inside. He reportedly went and looked in the apartment and told officers he wasn't there. Officers were later given permission to go inside, but they did not find the man after a brief search.
Selgren and another officer who responded told CIRT investigators they believed the son they spoke with could have been protecting his father, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or trying to "mess with (them)."
After some discussion between the 18-year-old man and his mother, he came downstairs and went into the a first-floor apartment belonging to a family friend, which is where the woman's younger daughters were. Officers saw the woman hold the door shut after her son went in as if to try and keep someone from coming out, and it appeared someone was trying to open the door, Selgren said to CIRT investigators.
Officers prepared to leave the complex to search for the man wanted on the felony warrant, but then they noticed him on the balcony of his ex-wife's apartment. Selgren and two other officers went to approach him while other officers set up a perimeter in case he fled.
The man reportedly did not respond to officers' commands to come out of the apartment, so the three responding officers climbed the stairs and entered the apartment.
McLaughlin said he saw and heard the following in Selgren's body camera footage from immediately before and after he entered the apartment, where the shooting occured:
A woman's voice is heard yelling the son's name as the officers climb the stairs, then the man's mother is heard saying "my son is right in there and he ... please be careful because my son ..." and the rest is inaudible.
The first officer enters with his stun gun drawn and walks to the back of the apartment. Selgren enters next and the sound of a live round being chambered into a gun can be heard.
Selgren's body camera shows him turning down the hallway where the noise came from, and a man — who investigators identified as 18-year-old Michael Cordova — comes out of a room at the end of the hall and allegedly runs toward the officers with a gun pointed at them.
"It is clear in the video that Michael Cordova was taking a shooting position with a large assault-style firearm pointed directly at Officer Selgren," McLaughlin wrote in his decision letter.
Still frames from Selgren's body camera footage included in McLaughlin's letter show a man pointing a gun at Selgren from down a hallway.
Selgren shot the man twice prior to any other shots being fired.
The man dropped the gun and went back into the bedroom, but shortly came out of the room and complied with officers' commands. He can be heard saying — though hard to hear — "my dad" and repeating "I'm helping you, I was helping you."
"Officer Selgren said it all happened very fast and he never had a chance to give Cordova any commands," McLaughlin said in his letter. Selgren told investigators he thought he and the other officer were going to die.
Cordova was taken to the hospital for treatment of his injuries. After being released from the hospital, he was booked into the Larimer County Jail on multiple felony allegations. Online court records show formal charges have not been filed against him by the district attorney's office as of Friday morning. The Coloradoan has asked the district attorney's office to clarify whether formal charges have been filed in the case.
The man's father — 40-year-old Isaac Cordova — was arrested on a felony burglary warrant, a misdemeanor warrant, and two misdemeanors and a drug felony stemming from the Sept. 2 incident. He was taken into custody after jumping from the balcony during the incident, the Larimer County Sheriff's Office previously said.
He told CIRT investigators he and his son had been using methamphetamine together for a month prior to this incident and had used it the morning of the incident, according to McLaughlin's letter. The two believed they "were being followed by people with guns," according to McLaughlin, and came to Michael's mother's house that day to bring her guns to protect herself and the other children and to get away from the people chasing them, Isaac Cordova reportedly told CIRT investigators.
Isaac Cordova is next scheduled to appear in court Oct. 4. Michael Cordova is next scheduled to appear in court Oct. 25.
All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in court. Arrests and charges are merely accusations by law enforcement until, and unless, a suspect is convicted of a crime.
How CIRT works
The 8th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team, or CIRT, was formed in 2015 in accordance with a new state law requiring a multiagency team to investigate "an incident involving the discharge of a firearm by a peace officer that resulted in injury or death."
The team is automatically and immediately activated when a police officer is involved in a shooting. The agency that employs the officer or officers involved in a shooting is responsible for alerting the team.
CIRT can also investigate incidents involving officers that result in serious injury or death, including car crashes, as well as incidents in the Larimer County Jail.
Fort Collins Police Services, Loveland Police Department and the Larimer County Sheriff's Office take turns being the lead agency for police shooting investigations. Each year, the responsibility rotates to a different agency.
Agencies involved in the investigations include: Windsor Police Department, Timnath Police Department, Johnstown Police Department, Estes Park Police Department, Colorado State University Police Department, Colorado State Patrol and the Larimer County District Attorney's Office.
An agency cannot investigate itself.
After a CIRT investigation is completed, the report is presented to the district attorney, who decides if any criminal charges will be filed related to the incident.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins police officer cleared in shooting that injured man
