THORNTON, Colo. — An Adams County Sheriff's deputy under investigation for his involvement in a fracas that occurred at a Thornton Walmart on Tuesday has turned himself in.
The deputy, Ezekiel Spotts, has been released, according to police.
The Thornton Police Department said officers responded to the Walmart at East 128th Avenue and Quebec Street just before 2 p.m. Tuesday on a report of a disturbance involving several people, one of whom was later identified as Spotts.
Spotts is a 17-year veteran who works at the jail, the sheriff's office said. Official charges against Spotts are pending.
Thornton officers spoke with the people involved as well as witnesses, according to a spokesperson, and investigators began looking for video of the incident.
Linda Hurley said she and her daughter, Erika Smith, were both injured by the deputy, after a verbal altercation turned physical. She said the two of them were shopping with Smith’s infant daughter Tuesday afternoon and as they left the store, they encountered the man.
“She [Erika] was behind me, the guy cut between me and her from the one set of doors to the second set of doors that lead all the way outside,” Hurley said. “I got all the way outside, and then he stops before those doors, and she ended up bumping him [with her cart] – and caused a whole verbal thing to go on. When she got outside, he started escalating it, pushing her and grabbing her arm. She slapped him for him touching her without her permission. Then he decked her in the eye.”
Hurley said the man told them he was a “cop,” but was not in uniform.
Hurley said, eventually, she and her daughter and the baby got back to their car, and she assumed the confrontation was over. But she said the man ran back toward them, and grabbed the back door hatch to their vehicle. Hurley said she believes he was trying to get their license plate.
“She [Erika] slaps the camera out of the way, he decked her so hard she went to the ground. He grabbed her by the throat, picked her up, and threw her into the car and started choking her,” Hurley said.
Hurley said she tried to intervene, but said the man then hit her in the face and side of the head. She said she fell onto the shopping cart where the baby was still strapped into her car seat, and both of them tumbled across the ground.
She said all three family members went to the hospital where the women were treated for the injuries, and doctors determined the baby was OK. Hurley said she has a broken nose and a fractured skull. She said her daughter has bruising on the outside of her neck, a fractured foot, and some possible internal injuries they are monitoring from home.
“He took everything way out of control,” Hurley said. “That was excessive force. There was no reason for it.”
Hurley said both she and her daughter have spoken to investigators, sharing their perspective about what happened.
“Nobody knows another person until you talk to them. You don’t know what’s going on in a person’s life. There has to be more compassion, this one officer lost his compassion,” she said.
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