Man pistol whips woman in Colorado Springs, leading to foot chase and police shooting
By: The Colorado Springs Police Department has released the footage of the officer-involved-shooting in the early hours of June 9 that left one man with gunshot wounds and a charge of first degree assault.
Just before 1 a.m., three CSPD officers with the downtown area response team were on foot patrol in front of a business located at 18 South Nevada Avenue. While on foot patrol, they heard a disturbance to their north.
Officers proceeded to move toward the disturbance when they saw a woman fall to the ground after appearing to have been assaulted.
Nearby business security cameras captured footage of the altercation that occurred between the suspect, identified as 21-year-old Al'Morion Germany, and the woman. Germany is seen pointing a gun at the woman before hitting her in the head with the weapon, but did not fire at her.
At this time, Officer Benjamin Hengel, who has been with CSPD for five years, drew his taser and identified himself as a police officer. Hengel began to move closer to the disturbance when another man stepped in front of the officer and proceeded to chase Germany, who was fleeing.
Security footage shows that the man suddenly stopped and put his hands up when Germany pointed a gun at him. Hengel began to move toward the man's left when he saw the weapon pointed at both himself and the man. At this point, he alerted the other officers by shouting "gun" and then ordered Germany to drop the weapon while drawing his department-issued handgun.
Germany turned away and ran north along South Nevada Avenue, then turned onto Pikes Peak Avenue, running west toward a parking lot.
Officers continued to pursue Germany while identifying themselves as police and ordered the suspect to drop the weapon.
As Hengel turned on to Pikes Peak Avenue, he dropped his taser and fired three rounds at Germany, two of which hit him.
Following the suspect being shot and hit twice, he continued to run across Pikes Peak Avenue before following officer commands to get on the ground. From there, Germany was taken into custody and arrested for first degree assault.
Once the suspect was in custody, emergency medical aid was rendered until paramedics arrived. While receiving aid, the video shows Germany telling the officers repeatedly to "please don't let me die, bro," while officers reassured the suspect he would be okay.
Germany was transported to a local hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening, injuries. Besides the suspect, one other community member suffered minor injuries during the incident.
Officers recovered a loaded 10 mm Glock handgun from the area of where the suspect was shot.