Man who pointed a gun to his head is fatally shot by Adams County deputy at Lakeside Inn
By: A property manager at the Lakeside Inn where an Adams County sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man early Friday morning said the officer was alone during the incident, and she believed "did everything that he should have done correctly."
She said it was a "chaotic situation that was over in minutes."
Sherry Martinez said that just after midnight, a suspect drove up to the property at 6251 Federal and parked in front of a room “as if he was staying there.”
Martinez described motel surveillance video footage, which showed that the deputy pulled in soon after the man parked his car toward the back of the property. She said the suspect pulled into a parking space the wrong way, which seemed odd at first.
Adams County Sheriff spokesperson Adam Sherman said that there was no originating call for service and that: "It was a self-initiated action by the deputy."
Officials with the Adams County Sheriff's Office tweeted that the incident started when the deputy tried to contact a suspect who was "believed to be armed with a handgun.”
The footage showed the suspect and an unidentified woman leave the vehicle, Martinez said, and the suspect started walking toward the deputy with a handgun to his head. As this was happening, Martinez said the footage showed the woman run to a catwalk overhead, where she stood behind the officer.
Martinez said she was sure that the suspect was carrying a pistol, but that she did not know whether the woman was armed, which contributed to the intensity of the moment.
“Who knows what that female had. Nobody knows. The officer had his back to the female, so he didn’t even know she was there,” Martinez said in a phone interview, her voice shaking.
Martinez, who was working with her husband, who is also a property manager, said that the officer told the suspect to drop his gun.
“The officer had his handgun out. He said, put it down, put it down.”
The surveillance video showed that the suspect “had the gun to his head like ‘shoot me’ like a suicide by cop attitude,” she said.
She said that she did not believe from her interpretation of the footage that the suspect pointed his gun at the officer, but that the suspect did not comply with his order.
When Martinez and her husband heard multiple gunshots, they ran out of the motel office and saw the deputy giving CPR to the suspect, who was already handcuffed. She said that the deputy had kicked the handgun off to the side and that he was radioing for backup.
Once other officers and emergency personnel showed up, the woman who was in the vehicle fled.
“I was yelling at one of those cops, 'There goes that female who ran from that car'."
Adams County Sheriffs said that the deputy was uninjured in the incident, and he has been placed on administrative leave.
The 17th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team has begun an investigation and a spokesperson asked that any media outlets who obtain video of the incident not to show it until the investigation is complete.
Sherman confirmed that the investigation would like to speak with the woman, who was not apprehended, as a witness.