WELD COUNTY, Colo. — The Fort Lupton police officer who has been charged with manslaughter will face a jury beginning Monday.
The trial against Zachary Helbig is slated to begin on Monday in Weld County. This comes after a Weld County Statutory Grand Jury indicted the officer for his role in the fatal shooting of a man he first encountered during a disturbance call.
The incident happened on Jan. 16, 2019 at the Shell gas station at 641 14th St. in Fort Lupton, according to the indictment. Details about exactly what happened haven’t been released, but what the indictment does say is that Helbig pursued Shawn Joseph Billinger, who later got out of his vehicle and ran away.
According to the indictment, Billinger then started quickly walking toward Helbig and yelled “killed me.” Investigators said he didn’t have anything in his hands at the time.
The indictment says Helbig fired one shot at Billinger, hitting him in the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
"The defendant acted recklessly with respect to his conduct described above and was not justified in the actions he took pursuant to the affirmative defenses of deadly force in the defense of a person and peace officer's use of deadly physical force," the indictment says.
The trial is slated to last all week.
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