Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke has cleared Greeley police officers of any wrongdoing in the shooting of Theodore Rybus on the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) campus on June 18. The incident occurred as law enforcement was attempting to pull over Rybus for an active felony warrant for car theft. Rybus did not pull over and was found to be walking on the UNC campus brandishing a gun.
Officers asked Rybus to drop the gun. He didn’t comply and he ran through the UNC campus to an area with multiple civilians. Officers Cronquist and Vasquez fired multiple rounds and one of the bullets struck Rybus in the back. Rybus shot himself in the head and he was ruled to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Weld County District Attorney (DA) Rourke wrote the language of the Colorado law that defines when a peace officer is justified to use deadly force, which is “only when all other means of apprehension are unreasonable given the circumstances,” as well as three other factors. The arrest must involve a suspect involved in a felony with threatened use of deadly physical force. The suspect must be an immediate threat to a peace officer or another person. The force employed must not create a substantial risk of injury to other persons.
“Officers reasonably believed when they fired their weapons that bystanders on the campus were in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury,” DA Rourke wrote.
Since the suspect was fleeing the police officers after brandishing a firearm, Rourke determined it was reasonable to believe the man was an imminent threat to bystanders on the UNC campus.
“Based on the facts gathered during this investigation as summarized in the attached report and the legal analysis outlined above, I find that Officers Cronquist and Vasquez were justified when they discharged their firearms and shot Rybus,” Rourke wrote. “The use of such force was reasonable based on Rybus’s threatened use of deadly physical force.”
“Under C.R.S. § 18-1-707 and 18-1-704, the actions of Officers Cronquist and Vasquez were justified and authorized by law to defend and protect innocent bystanders from the threatening actions of Theodore Rybus,” Rourke concluded. “As a result, the Weld County District Attorney’s Office will not file charges against the Officers for discharging their firearms during this event.”
