6 officer-involved Pueblo shootings in 2018 alone

Southern Colorado is no stranger to shootings especially when law enforcement is involved. This past year, officers in Pueblo alone discharged their weapons and fired at another person six times.

In these six engagements, there were multiple instances where the suspects fired back at officers. Fortunately, in all six shootings, none of the officers involved were injured or shot.

In three of these shootings the suspect was injured though, and in the other three suspects succumbed to their injuries.

Pueblo Chief of Police Troy Davenport says these officer-involved shootings are happening more and more, and criminals are becoming bolder.

“You know the first twenty years of my career an officer-involved shooting might happen once a year,” said Chief Davenport. “For 2018 alone we’ve had six.”

Pueblo Chief of Police Troy Davenport first saw an uptick in officer-involved shootings back in 2011. He can’t point to a reason why that’s the case but they have seen patterns in the suspects.

“We did a study and about eighty percent of the suspects involved in officer-involved shootings had either been on probation or parole at the time or sometime during their life,” said Chief Davenport.

Another possible cause could be that our country is becoming more divisive. Chief Davenport says recent disagreements between people throughout the United States made have made people combative.

“We’ve seen officers ambushed in Dallas, Texas and five or six of them were murdered,” said Chief Davenport. That’s a level of behavior that is just difficult to understand.”

So how do we change this trend? Davenport says they will continue to work hard to gain public trust and support.

Groups like Shield 616 is working to keep officers in Pueblo safe when out in the field. Shield 616 is trying to raise funds through the community to provide helmets and protective gear to officers.