Attempted De-escalation Fails as Suspect Fires at Officers in Colorado Springs

On Friday, December 13, 2024 at 9:43 p.m., the El Paso County Sheriff's Office received a call from a female who indicated that her husband was armed with a gun he was holding to his head. Deputies responded to the home. However, the husband had left the area. Deputies aired a be on the lookout or bolo notification in an attempt to locate the man, including his identity and vehicle description. At 11:00 p.m. officers with the Colorado Springs Police Department were dispatched to a call for service for an active shooter in the 3,800 block of Astrozon Boulevard. The reporting party stated that his cousin worked at a restaurant that was getting shot at. When officers arrived, they encountered a man in his pickup truck in the parking lot. The individual was armed with a handgun and was holding it to his head. Officers ordered the individual to drop the gun.

The responding officers backed away from the truck and attempted to deescalate the situation. Officers determine that the party they were in contact with was the same party from the BOLO issued by the El Paso County Sheriff's Office earlier in the evening. Because of the danger to the community and the individual's ability to drive away, more officers arrived on scene to ensure the safety of the surrounding community and contain the individual who was behaving erratically. Over the next 55 minutes, officers attempted to deescalate the situation and build a rapport with the man. During that time, the man fired his handgun several times from inside his vehicle. After 55 minutes of continuing efforts to deescalate the situation, the man exited his truck with his gun to his head. About one minute later, one officer deployed a non-lethal 40mm dense foam round, striking the man in the stomach in an attempt to force him to drop the gun.

Several rounds of pepper spray balls were also fired in an effort to gain compliance. At that point, the individual fired two shots. The first was toward a group of officers and a business located to the south, and then seven seconds later, he fired another round directly toward a closer group of officers to the north. Several officers then returned fire, striking the suspect multiple times. After the suspect was shot, officers took him into custody. Officers and members of the Colorado Springs Fire Department's tactical emergency medical services team began rendering emergency medical aid to the suspect. Investigators recovered a loaded Glock 27 .40 caliber handgun from the scene. Here is a photo of that gun. The suspect was pronounced dead on scene. The suspect has been identified as 33-year-old Dean Ackerman.