{"id":30228,"date":"2023-12-08T17:23:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T00:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-police-officer-returned-fire-during-fatal-traffic-stop\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:14:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:14:55","slug":"cortez-police-officer-returned-fire-during-fatal-traffic-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-police-officer-returned-fire-during-fatal-traffic-stop\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez police officer returned fire during fatal traffic stop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Police
Police tape marks off the crime scene where Cortez Police Department Sgt. Michael Moran was shot and killed during a traffic stop Wednesday in southwest Cortez, near the Handy Mart, at 806 South Broadway. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The man who shot and killed a Cortez police officer during a roadside stop last week in southwest Cortez began firing shots \u201calmost immediately\u201d after being pulled over on suspicion of reckless driving, according to a news release issued Friday by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.<\/p>\n

Cortez Police Sgt. Michael Moran returned fire, but it didn\u2019t stop the suspect from fleeing the scene, according to the release.<\/p>\n

The news release contained few new details.<\/p>\n

The CBI did not release a possible motive for the shooting. It also declined to say how many shots were fired, how many times Moran was shot or whether the suspect was hit by Moran\u2019s return fire.<\/p>\n

The shooting occurred about 11:25 a.m. Nov. 29 in the 800 block of South Broadway in southwest Cortez. Dispatchers aired a report of reckless driving, and Moran was attempting to initiate a traffic stop in connection with that report, according to the CBI.<\/p>\n

The suspect, Jason Campbell, 44, and his passenger were later located about 1\u00bd miles south of the traffic stop, where a deputy with the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office and an officer with the Cortez Police Department engaged Campbell in a shootout.<\/p>\n

Campbell was killed by gunfire from law enforcement, according to the CBI release.<\/p>\n

The CBI said Campbell was armed with a handgun at the time of the traffic stop. He used that gun during the traffic stop and the shootout with law enforcement.<\/p>\n

No other law enforcement agencies were involved in the shootings.<\/p>\n

The passenger in Campbell\u2019s vehicle, who has not been identified, was briefly detained and released. No suspects remain at large.<\/p>\n

CBI agents are reviewing body-worn camera footage, conducting interviews, canvassing the area, awaiting results from autopsies and conducting forensic testing.<\/p>\n

The CBI has not indicated whether it suspects any procedural or legal breach on the part of law enforcement during the shooting events. The agency said once the investigation is concluded, information will be presented to the 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office, which makes decisions about whether to file criminal charges.<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado Bureau of Investigation said suspect fired shots \u2018almost immediately\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,168,150,28,993,52,60],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-crime","tag-firearms","tag-headlines","tag-investigation","tag-law-enforcement","tag-montezuma-county"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30228","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=30228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81007,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30228\/revisions\/81007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30228"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}