{"id":25585,"date":"2024-09-24T18:57:20","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T00:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/da-clears-montezuma-county-deputy-sergeant-in-fatal-july-shooting\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:21:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:21:44","slug":"da-clears-montezuma-county-deputy-sergeant-in-fatal-july-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/da-clears-montezuma-county-deputy-sergeant-in-fatal-july-shooting\/","title":{"rendered":"DA clears Montezuma County deputy, sergeant in fatal July shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office has cleared the officers who fatally shot a man who approached them with a rifle in July. (Shylee Graf\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The 22nd Judicial District Attorney on Monday cleared Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Sgt. Bryan Hill and deputy Cayden Worcester of potential charges in the fatal shooting of John Thompson in July.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the case, determined that criminal charges against the peace officers were not warranted.<\/p>\n

The CBI presented their findings to District Attorney Christian Hatfield. CBI\u2019s investigation included recorded interviews with Hill and Worcester, witness statements, police communications and reports, photographs and video recordings.<\/p>\n

Hatfield said that after hearing CBI\u2019s full presentation and reviewing the evidence provided, he ruled that there was no basis for criminal charges against Hill or Worcester, based on Colorado law.<\/p>\n

\u201cApplying the applicable statutes to the facts presented through this investigation, neither Sgt. Hill nor deputy Worcester are subject to criminal prosecution for their actions,\u201d Hatfield said.<\/p>\n

Hatfield said that based on the information he had been provided, he was able to learn that Hill and Worcester were confronted by Thompson while they tried to do a welfare check on his mother in Mancos on July 18.<\/p>\n

When officers arrived after 9 a.m., Thompson was standing in the middle of his driveway, telling officers that his mother was inside and he needed help, but the Sheriff\u2019s Office was not \u201cletting people on the property.\u201d After arguing the point, he told the officers, \u201cYou\u2019re about to be dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then reportedly retrieved a .284 Winchester lever-action rifle from a truck before walking toward the officers \u201cwith the rifle in a \u2018low-ready\u2019 position.\u201d They ordered him multiple times to put the weapon down, but Thompson kept urging them to shoot him.<\/p>\n

After multiple commands to put the gun down, Thompson put the rifle to his shoulder in a \u201cfiring position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTake that,\u201d he said in the audio, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Hill and Worcester fired from behind the cover of their patrol vehicle, and Thompson collapsed from the gunshot wounds. Hill and Worcester administered aid until EMS arrived, but he was declared dead.<\/p>\n

According to the report, Hill discharged eight rounds, and Worcester fired one. Five of the nine shots hit Thompson, and an autopsy on July 22 said the shots would have been \u201crapidly fatal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s rifle was found to have one unused round in the chamber and four in the magazine.<\/p>\n

\u201cSgt. Hill and Deputy Worcester\u2019s use of deadly force did not violate Colorado law. This District Attorney will not be\u00a0pursuing charges against them for their actions in this incident,\u201d Hatfield said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did what they\u2019re trained to do, and what the law allowed,\u201d Sheriff Steve Nowlin told The<\/em> Journal<\/em> on Tuesday. \u201cWe\u2019re all about preserving life, but unfortunately, they had to do what they had to do to save their own. It\u2019s a sad deal, but I\u2019m so grateful that they\u2019re OK, and they\u2019ll be back to work real soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a loss of life and I just feel bad, but unfortunately, this is what we\u2019re having to deal with more and more all the time now,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cWe\u2019re all placed in this situation, and at any time it can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though \u201cknowingly or intentionally\u201d shooting a human is \u201cgenerally prohibited by statute as an assault or attempted homicide\u201d in Colorado, Hatfield said the criminal code \u201cspecifies certain circumstances in which the use of physical force by a peace officer is justified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Revised Statute 18-1-707 allows use of force by police officers \u201cif nonviolent means would be ineffective in effecting an arrest, preventing an escape, or preventing an imminent threat of injury to the peace officer or another person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Use of force may be used during an arrest if the suspect\u2019s conduct includes \u201cthe use or threatened use of deadly physical force\u201d or if the suspect \u201cposes an immediate threat to the peace officer or another person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find in our review of this incident that no conduct by Sgt. Hill or Deputy Worcester rose to\u00a0the level of a criminal offense. It is the conclusion of my office that, based on the applicable law\u00a0and the facts and circumstances of this case, law enforcement\u2019s actions during this incident were\u00a0legally justified as set forth in CRS 18-1-707. Sgt. Hill and Deputy Worcester were legally justified in their use of reasonable and appropriate physical force in response to an imminent risk of death or great bodily injury to themselves. As a result, my office will not be filing criminal charges against Sgt. Hill, Deputy Worcester, or any other member of law enforcement involved in this incident,\u201d Hatfield said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate the cooperation provided by the MCSO and the extremely thorough investigation\u00a0conducted by CBI,\u201d Hatfield said.<\/p>\n

This article was republished Sept. 24 to correct the name of the Sheriff\u2019s Office sergeant to Bryan Hill. Information provided by the District Attorney\u2019s Office was incorrect.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

fatally shot after approaching the officers with a rifle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,52,83,60,29,390],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement","tag-mancos","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-shooting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79006,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25585\/revisions\/79006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25585"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}