Aurora detective ambushed

Corrections officers subdue suspect in officer's slaying

John C. Ensslin and Javier Erik Olvera, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 21, 2006 at midnight

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AURORA - A decorated police detective was shot to death Wednesday and police said the man they arrested was already being sought in a random shooting in Denver two days earlier.

Michael D. Thomas, 52, a 24-year veteran of the Aurora Police Department, was on a lunch break during a daylong training exercise when he was shot in the left side while waiting for the light to change on Peoria Street at Montview Boulevard.

It wasn't clear whether the suspect realized that Thomas was a police officer. Thomas was on duty at the time but wearing civilian clothes in his own personal vehicle.

Two corrections officers who were passing by when the shooting occurred scrambled out of their van and tackled the suspect, whom police identified as Brian Allen Washington, 27, of Denver.

Washington is being held without bail in Adams County Jail on investigation of first-degree homicide. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance this afternoon.

Denver police had identified Washington as a suspect in a similar shooting Monday in which a gunman fired into a woman's car at East 33rd Avenue and Pontiac Street.

Paramedics rushed Thomas to University of Colorado Hospital in Denver, where he was pronounced dead at 12:35 p.m., said Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates.

"This is a terrible and tragic day," Oates said during a somber press conference Wednesday afternoon in front of a memorial for slain officers outside Aurora police headquarters.

"This is about as hard as it gets for those of us in policing and we ask that you bear with us," the chief said.

Oates was surrounded by about 85 officers and city officials who were standing in front of a memorial that reads, "It's not how these officers died that makes them heroes. It's how they lived."

Police released no details of how the shooting occurred, other than to knock down a rumor that it was a road-rage incident.

Thomas became the fourth Aurora police officer slain in the line of duty. His death came just one day shy of 19 years after the death of Edward John Hockam, the last Aurora officer killed on duty.

"Mike was a great guy," said Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer. "This is a huge loss of somebody who cannot be replaced."

Tauer also thanked the two unidentified corrections officers who subdued the suspect as well as civilian witnesses who tried to come to the slain officer's aid.

Thomas served as a patrolman, a canine officer and a narcotics detective. He had been promoted to detective in April 2005 and recently was assigned to District 3 in southeast Aurora.

During his career, Thomas had been decorated more than a dozen times, including a 1992 Medal of Honor, the department's highest award.

In October 1991, Thomas and a fellow Aurora officer were stabbed by a knife-wielding man accused of beating his wife. Thomas suffered cuts to his forehead.

"He was known within the department as one of the hardest-working detectives," Oates said.

Washington has a lengthy adult arrest history dating back to January 1999. Most of his prior arrests were in Denver, Aurora and Adams County. The charges include smuggling contraband into prison in 1999, drug possession, parole violations and traffic offenses such as driving with a revoked licence.

His most recent arrest occurred Aug. 28 when Denver police arrested him on charges of possession of a weapon by a previous offender and marijuana possession.

Oates said Denver police had been seeking Washington in connection with a shooting that occurred around 10 a.m. Monday.

According to a police report, Vernice D. Griffin, 55, had stopped at a traffic light that morning when a man crossed in front of her gray Isuzu Amigo, pulled out a handgun and fired a shot through her front windshield.

She ducked and the shot missed her, although shards of glass from the shattered windshield cut her left hand. As she drove east on 33rd Avenue to get away, she could see the suspect running westbound.

Griffin, a home-care nurse with a background in psychiatric nursing, said she didn't know the man who fired the shot.

"Oh my God," Griffin said Wednesday night after she was told the same man who may have shot at her was also a suspect in the fatal shooting of an Aurora detective.

Wednesday's shooting occurred at a busy intersection that includes North Middle School and the Fitzsimons Golf Course.

Investigators interviewed several witnesses and used an Aurora Fire Department ladder truck to shoot an aerial view of the crime scene.

Police have asked anyone who witnessed the shooting to call Detective R.J. Wilson at 303-739-6106.

ensslinj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5291

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