DENVER – A man shot and killed by police in early August as they responded to a call of domestic violence in Denver’s Valverde neighborhood was holding a black marker at the time of the deadly shooting, the city’s chief of police revealed during the release of the officers’ bodycam video Monday.
The Aug. 5 shooting occurred at around 8 p.m. on W. Cedar Avenue across from West Bar Val Wood Park after a man was allegedly seen assaulting a woman and a child.
Witnesses told police the man reportedly pushed his wife who was on a wheelchair out of the chair and into the ground.
In the first of two body cam videos released by the police department on Monday, the suspect – whom police described as “agitated” a day after the shooting – can be heard enciting one of the responding officers.
“Pull it out, let’s go!” the man can be heard saying as body camera video shows him grabbing the back of his waistband on the right-hand side of his jeans. He was identified as 36-year-old Brandon Cole by police Monday.
A woman who is sitting on the ground – the victim in this domestic violence incident – can also be heard pleading with a second responding officer to not pull out her gun out at the suspect, telling the officer she just needs an ambulance, the video shows.
The officer in the first video tells him to stop and to “listen to what I’m saying” before he pulls out a Taser as the suspect is seen slowly approaching the officer in a somewhat crouched manner.
Cole is then seen looking toward his left and starts moving in the direction of a second police officer when the first officer deploys his Taser to little effect.
The suspect keeps walking in the direction of the second officer as the presumed victim yells at him to stop and the second officer commands him to stop as well.
The man is then seen rapidly walking toward the second officer who repeatedly tells him to stop before the suspect is seen grabbing an object from inside his pants as he raises his hand toward his chest.
Fearing for her life, the second officer is then seen firing two rounds from her weapon at the suspect, who drops the object and falls to the ground. That object turned out to be a black marker, according to DPD Chief of Police Ron Thomas, who released the findings of a preliminary internal investigation during a news conference Monday afternoon.
Body cam video from the female officer shows a woman and a small child in the direct line of sight of the second officer just behind the suspect as she fires her weapon.
When asked if the female officer could have repositioned herself to avoid potentially injuring bystanders at the scene, Thomas said there was "certainly a consideration" for that as officers are trained in different scenarios where people are involved, but there "wasn't much to time act before she (the female officer) was overrun" by the suspect.
Pressing him further on the use of a deadly weapon when a Taser could have been used by the female officer, Thomas said it is department policy that if an officer has deployed a Taser, a second officer should have a lethal weapon in hand in case things escalate in which deadly forced has to be used by law enforcement.
Cole was later taken to a hospital where he was pronounced deceased.
The victim in this incident declined to be taken to the hospital, according to police.
The identity of the female officer who fired her weapon was not released by DPD officials on Monday, with Thomas only saying she is assigned to District 4 and has been with the police department since 2019 and has never been involved in a police shooting before.
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
