8 Pueblo officers on leave after shooting on city’s east side

Pueblo police officials said Joe Delira-Alires led them on a chase Monday night following a domestic disturbance call on the city’s east side.

It ended on 13th Street and Craig Street when police forced his car to a stop. He got out running but ended up being killed after exchanging gunfire with the police.

“We hit the floor because we had no idea. And Steve goes ‘Kelly, Kelly get down.’ He goes, ‘there’s gun shots. They’re gun shots,” said Kelly Galvan who runs a bed and breakfast near the crime scene.

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Now eight out of the 11 police officers on that watch are on administrative leave.

“It’s a huge impact for us,” said Capt. Kenny Rider with the Pueblo Police Department.

Rider said the department will have to use the overtime budget to keep officers on the streets.

“We’ll have to call people out. We’ll have to hold people over. We’ll have to do everything we can to fill in those overtime positions,” Rider said.

Fortunately, those officers were on the end of their work week, so the impact won’t be immediately felt.

“Saturday is a common day where our schedules typically overlap. So it won’t hit us so bad on Saturday either. But starting on Sunday is when we’ll have to use overtime to fill in those positions,” Rider said.

Rider said the department has a large overtime budget, but eight officers out at once are hitting the department pretty hard.

The names of the officers on leave haven’t been released yet.