Evidence tags mark more than 60 shell casings in Pueblo OIS

All of the yellow tags police used to mark shell casings on the scene of Monday’s officer involved shooting in Pueblo provide a visual snapshot of what Ronald Olson heard.

“I hid behind the bush across the street and I started hearing a lot of gunfire, so I ducked. It sounded like a machine gun at first, then after that went away I started hearing police shooting,” Olson said.

Kelly Galvan runs a bed and breakfast across the street and had a similar experience.

“We just saw nothing but flashes and the gun shots we could hear. So my husband came running into the living room and told me to get down,” Galvan said.

That hail of gunfire was aimed at Joe Delira-Alires, who was killed by officers. Police officials said he pulled a gun and shot at them after a high-speed chase through Pueblo Monday night.

Because the investigation is ongoing, police officials couldn’t say exactly how many shots were fired.

At this point, investigators also aren’t releasing how many of the officers fired their weapons but we know eight are on administrative leave.

Police Chief Troy Davenport said his officers are trained to shoot if they feel their life is threatened.

“It just isn’t as simple as ‘a’ followed by ‘b’ followed by ‘c.’ It’s just not that way,”davenport said.

He said he trusts his officers to make the right decisions, but will ultimately trust the outcome of the investigation.

“We do everything we can to select the best possible people that we can and then train them to the highest possible level,” Davenport said.

In most shootings, it’s rare for 60-plus bullets to be fired. That’s why this one stands out and will most certainly be part of the investigation.

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