Pueblo police chief concerned after 3 police shooting incidents

It’s become an all too familiar scene; evidence tags being placed where bullet casings lay after Pueblo Police made the decision to fire at a suspect.

There have been three incidents in Pueblo this year where police have made the decision to fire at a suspect.

It happened again Tuesday morning. According to police, a suspect fled from officers, pulled a gun and started shooting.

Chief Troy Davenport says he’s getting worried.

“It’s very difficult, it’s hard on the community, it’s hard on families, and I mean all families,” Davenport said.

He said officers are trained to shoot until the threat is taken out. That helps explain the more than 60 evidence tags marking bullet casings at the first Pueblo police shooting of the year on January 22.

“They’re reacting as any human being would be. But they’re trained. They’re trained well,” Davenport said.

He said these incidents use a lot of resources, and the department loses officers to administrative leave during the investigation.

Often times, they have to bring in more people or use overtime to fill positions.

After the police are involved in a shooting like this, it’s not only their resources that are impacted but also at the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office where they lead all of the investigations.

“We pull whatever shift is not in to cover that shift so that we can cover those crime scenes and those events happen over a period of two or three days,” said Pueblo County Undersheriff J.R. Hall.

Davenport said there have been 15 police shootings since 2011, and many of the suspects involved have had prior violent charges.

“In the first 20 years of my career, we might have one of these incidents every other year. I think we need to take a serious look at whats going on,” Davenport said.

Davenport said they are lucky no officers have been injured or killed, but he says it might not be far off.