DENVER – Adams County Sheriff Michael McIntosh said Thursday afternoon that the office will continue not to name the suspect believed to have shot Deputy Heath Gumm Wednesday night, though the suspect is in custody and is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon.
McIntosh said he continues to believe there are two other suspects still at-large who are linked to the original call that led deputies to an area in Thornton where Gumm, 31, was shot. But he said his investigators didn’t believe the two were involved directly in the shooting of Gumm.
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McIntosh said there were “two different investigations,” but that deputies believed all three suspects were together during the original assault call out.
The suspect who is already in custody is a 22-year-old man who faces investigation on two counts of first-degree murder of a peace officer, one count of first-degree murder after deliberation, and second-degree burglary of a dwelling.
Denver7 is not currently naming the suspect or showing his photo at the request of the sheriff’s office, which requested those conditions on the basis of saying, “You may be compromising a murder investigation.”
Court records show the suspect was found guilty of a felony robbery charge in July 2014 in Denver. He was originally also charged with second-degree assault in that case after his October 2013 arrest, but the charge was dropped.
The suspect is scheduled to appear in Adams County court Friday at 1:30 p.m., according to court records.
Sheriff McIntosh said at the afternoon press briefing that there was "inaccurate" information being released by some media outlets, but when pressed, could not cite an example. He only said that the sheriff's office was the only accurate source of information.
The two outstanding suspects are only described as either light-skinned black males or dark-skinned Hispanic males. Sheriff McIntosh said the others at the original scene were "males and females."
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies were responding to an assault in progress near 88th and Dawson in Thornton just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, and spotted a man matching the description of one of the suspects.
The man ran from officers, the sheriff’s office said, and after deputies caught up to him, he pulled out a handgun and started shooting.
Gumm was struck in the chest and died after being transported to Denver Health. He was wearing a bulletproof vest when he was shot, the sheriff said Thursday.
A massive manhunt was underway Wednesday night through Thursday morning for the outstanding suspects both in the Thornton area and across the rest of the Denver metro.
Flags were ordered to be flown at half-staff Thursday in Gumm’s honor. There has also been a massive outpouring of support for Gumm’s family and friends, and his Adams County Sheriff’s Office family.
Gumm was a husband and was a 2004 graduate of Mullen High School in Denver, the school said Thursday.
The Adams County Sheriff's Foundation is accepting donations for Gumm's family. The Adams County Sheriff's Office said that information about Gumm's funeral arrangements would be posted on its website at a later date. The family has asked that donations be made to the Children's Hospital Colorado Foundation in lieu of flowers.
The shooting marks the second fatal shooting of a deputy in Colorado in 25 days after Douglas County Deputy Zackari Parrish was ambushed on New Year's Eve 2017. This is the first deputy death in Adams County since 1999, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.