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Grand County deputy shoots, injures man after chase

Electrician, 23, critical, wounded by Grand deputy

By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 8, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Dawn North, whose 23-year-old son was shot by a Grand County sheriff's deputy in a confrontation late Monday, and her daughter Dawnette, deal with stress outside St. Anthony Central Hospital. North said her son takes medication for schizophrenia.

Photo by Darin McGregor / The Rocky

Dawn North, whose 23-year-old son was shot by a Grand County sheriff's deputy in a confrontation late Monday, and her daughter Dawnette, deal with stress outside St. Anthony Central Hospital. North said her son takes medication for schizophrenia.

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A 23-year-old man may be paralyzed after he was shot by a Grand County deputy following a wild car chase and crash late Monday night.

The man, identified only as David, was listed in critical condition following an 11-hour surgery Tuesday morning at Denver's St. Anthony Central Hospital.

David's mother, Dawn North, said her son was shot in the Adam's apple, hip, abdomen and hand.

She said David can barely lift his arms. Doctors have cautioned that he may have paralysis because a bullet damaged his spinal cord, she said.

Her son was able to mouth, "I can't move," North recounted, nervously smoking and pacing with her 17-year-old daughter, Dawnette, on a street near the hospital Tuesday.

"He has blown us kisses," she said.

The confrontation has gripped the town of Granby, where locals, including North, are on a first-name basis with Grand County Sheriff Rod Johnson. North even used to work for the sheriff as an animal control officer.

Chase and confrontation

David, a working electrician, is among the nearly 800,000 Coloradans without health insurance.

He was diagnosed three years ago with drug-induced schizophrenia, about the time he also was convicted of drunken driving, his mother said.

His mental illness especially can be triggered when he drinks, she said.

"Unfortunately, he has no insurance and the medicine is $300 a month," she said.

North is angered that authorities never notified the family that her son had been shot.

The mother said she had to call the sheriff's office and Johnson spoke to her briefly, saying: "There was a confrontation, and the deputy had to shoot him."

North said her son owns no weapons.

"I'm just so confused," she said. "This is my son. They shot my boy."

North said David, the eldest of her three children, went out about 6:30 p.m. Monday for what should have been a 30-minute trip to Winter Park to return a movie video and go to the grocery store. "He left my house completely sober," she said.

A half-hour later, someone called the sheriff's dispatcher to report a possible drunken driver in a black Ford Focus swerving into oncoming traffic as he careened south on U.S. 40 near Granby, Johnson told the Rocky Mountain News.

A deputy soon spotted the Ford near Tabernash and attempted to pull it over.

"The driver just took off," Johnson said, adding that the car continued to swerve into oncoming lanes and turned around to drive the other way.

The cruiser and the Ford collided near Fraser, Johnson said. The deputy and the driver left their vehicles, and during a confrontation, the deputy shot the man in the abdomen and the throat.

Johnson wouldn't say whether the suspect was armed or had attacked or verbally threatened the deputy, stressing that the investigation was continuing. Johnson did not immediately release the man's last name.

Last medical episode

David's mother said she heard sirens and later the Flight for Life helicopter.

"I always do a mental check," North said. "Where are my kids? David was the only one . . . I didn't know where he was."

The mother became alarmed when David never met them at a local restaurant for dinner.

"I started thinking, 'Some- thing is wrong,' " North said.

After calling hospitals and the Granby medical clinic, she learned David had been shot.

North said David's last schizophrenic episode occurred about six months ago when he began drinking after his best friend was killed in a car crash. He got agitated and the mother took him to the local clinic, where he began grappling with medical staff trying to restrain him.

He received one month's worth of medication from the clinic and that ran out quite a while ago, North said.

Tuesday morning, taking a break from David's bedside, she said, "I was just in there looking at him and I thought: 'Here's a kid with a mental illness and he was shot three times by a cop.' "

Comments

  • October 8, 2008

    5:56 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    jzavist writes:

    One, a vehicle is a weapon. Two, an officer is very unlikely to be aware of anyone's medical condition prior to contacting them. Three, if you fail to stop and you're involved in a high-speed chase and then fail to follow the officer's commands, being shot becomes a very real possibility.

  • October 8, 2008

    7:48 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    theairdog writes:

    There doesn't have to be a weapon.

    Colorado Law allows anyone (including Police Officers) to defend themselves from imminent great bodily injury or death with force, including Deadly Force if no lesser amount will do.

    http://www.michie.com/colorado/lpext....

    Is it possible that an innebriated person suffering from drug-induced schizophrenia in the act of driving crazily and resisting arrest by a sole deputy might offer imminent great bodily injury?

    Deputies don't have the same access to backup that metro police often do. Sometimes your nearest backup could be 20 minutes away.

  • October 8, 2008

    8:32 a.m.

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    UteBill writes:

    Sad but justified.

    Black and White issue here.

  • October 8, 2008

    9:24 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    CWW writes:

    I'm sorry for the family, but they're blaming everyone except their son. He's not at fault because he has a medical condition, doesn't have health insurance, can't afford medication, etc. If the young man is mentally ill and liable to go balistic at any time, why is he running around loose?

    Also, there are medical plans you can get even if you are considered "uninsurable." The other thing is that at age 23, he could be on his mother's insurance. So she obviously doesn't have insurance either. It's not that hard to find out this info. How about some personal responsibility here?

  • October 8, 2008

    9:39 a.m.

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    Citizen21 writes:

    According to the mother (North) in an article in the DP, she said her son son sometimes loses his temper. Awhile back, someone hit his work truck in the post office parking lot in Granby; he got so upset that it took four police officers to restrain him, North said.

    The cops did thier job in stopping this guy. What transpired when they were trying to arrest him? Given the 23-year old's history with needing restraint, we don't know.

    My sympathies do go out to the family as this is a sad situation. BUT...what are the facts? Do you know? No. You were not there. Stop the accusations. Stop crucifying the police for doing their jobs. The police are not releasing anything because they are tired of getting sued for doing their job! Reserve judgment till all the facts are in. The paper should be emphasizing the facts - not an opinion.

  • October 8, 2008

    11:34 a.m.

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    2ndamendmentrights writes:

    It seems to me that maybe he should have got a job to be able to afford his meds. This was a justified shoot. Pure and simple. If his car made contact with the deputies, that alone qualifies as assault on a peace officer.

  • October 8, 2008

    3:44 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    sheepherder writes:

    duncan is so tough! Can you feel how impressed I am! I hope your parole gets violated!

  • October 8, 2008

    5:51 p.m.

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    holyroller writes:

    None of you know the family or David, I do. None of you have spent time with this family, I have. They are good people who live good lives. Yes, David had his problems in the past but he had turned his life around. It is sad that in this country medications and health care are so expensive the common working family can't afford it. David's mom is a single mom with three children to raise and she did a hell of a job at it. You're telling me a 150 pound boy that was 5'5" tall could intimidate an officer without any weapons? BTW the officer is a male do your research before you type comments. Nobody knows what happened out there except for David, who by the way cannot talk right now, and the officer. We may never know the full story due to close relationships everyone has in Grand County and the local D.A. will be handling the investigation, isn't that a conflict of interests? This is a horrible tragedy and my deepest condolences go out to everyone involved. And until all the facts are known everyone needs to keep their ignorant opinions to yourself. I'm sure you would all change your tune if it was your son.

  • October 8, 2008

    8:13 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jess_neal writes:

    This story makes me feel uneasy, I grew up in Granby, Colorado and went to school with David.
    I knew him through my sister and her friends. When I heard about the shooting of course I was sad, David was someone I knew. All the questions that raced through my mind, How did this happen? Was he on drugs? Was he drunk? But I never bland the Grand County Sheriff Department. We have no idea what took place between David and the officer.
    Knowing first hand peace officer don’t leave their homes everyday hoping to shot someone, in fact most officer have nightmare about the thought of shooting someone. Their gun is not used unless there is no other way. my prays are with the officer and his family. Grand County is his home as well and now having to live in a place that hundreds of people hate him for doing his job. This event will hunt him every time he closes eyes, he will see that moment when he deiced that David was a danger to himself and others and that there was no other way. What I don’t understand is if this was a guy planning to kill people we would be honoring the officer with an award. But the one thing is the officer had the information of a danger to peoples life by David’s car and David himself same story but no honor and no award just hate and threats.
    I knew there was a reason I hated Granby this just reminded my why!!!!