x
Breaking News
More () »

'We gotta shoot': Morgan County sheriff breaks down dash cam footage

Sheriff Jim Crone discusses the release of dash cam footage that shows himself and Undersheriff Dave Martin shooting and killing a double-homicide suspect outside a Fort Morgan Walmart in May.
Credit: Morgan County Sheriff's Office

The leaders of the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office said watching dash cam video takes them back -- and gives the public a glimpse of what the morning of May 24 was like for them.

“All of the circumstances, all of the pieces of the puzzle that came together at the moment said, ‘We gotta shoot,’” said Sheriff Jim Crone.

Crone and Undersheriff Dave Martin shot and killed a double-homicide suspect outside a Fort Morgan Walmart in May.

RELATED | Morgan County SO: Knife-wielding double homicide suspect shot 7 times in Walmart parking lot

The department released a report and video of the incident Tuesday morning.

The excerpt of dash cam video from Crone’s vehicle shows the sheriff arriving at the Walmart on Barlow Road in Fort Morgan. Martin was already there in an unmarked vehicle.

The two were conducting surveillance on Dustin Brian Montano, a suspect wanted in a double homicide in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Crone said Montano was considered suicidal and homicidal.

Two of his relatives had been discovered murdered hours before. Authorities pinged Montano’s cell phone, and a Morgan County deputy spotted the suspect’s red Volkswagen Jetta in the Fort Morgan Walmart parking lot. Shortly after Crone arrived at Walmart, Martin saw Montano walking toward the Jetta in the parking lot.

“Dave got on the radio and said, ‘He’s coming out now,’” Crone said.

Audio from the dash cam video picks up the radio conversation between Crone and Martin.

“I’m getting ready to roll up here. Ready to move,” Martin said in the video.

“Right here with you,” Crone replied.

The video shows Crone pull up behind the suspect’s vehicle.

“I parked right behind him so he couldn’t get out,” Crone said. “So, we basically pinned him in there.”

Crone said he was worried Montano would try to ram his vehicle to escape.

“[I] bailed out of the car and started yelling commands: "Police! Don’t move! Don’t move! Don’t move!”

The video shows Crone at his driver’s side window with his gun drawn. Martin appears in the video approaching the suspect’s vehicle with his gun drawn. Another deputy arrives on scene, gets out of his car and draws his gun.

“The sheriff right away started yelling, ‘Don’t move,’ and [the suspect] ignored that and reached over and was getting something out the center console, passenger seat area,” Martin said

The suspect’s car door appears open in the dash cam video. It closes and then swings open abruptly.

“When that door flew open, that told me it was fight or flight,” Crone said.

The dash cam video shows Montano’s hand emerge clutching something.

“He had the knife in his hand, but when I saw the knife, I didn’t see a knife, I saw the barrel of a revolver,” Crone said.

Martin said he, too, was convinced Montano was holding a gun.

In the video, Crone shoots first, firing a shot into the suspect’s car. Montano gets out of the car with both hands raised but still clutching the knife. Crone continues firing, and Martin shoots as well.

Montano is struck and falls to the ground. Crone said he doesn’t recall seeing Montano raise both of his hands as the dash cam video shows.

“When I watched the video weeks afterwards and saw that, it about made my heart stop because it had the impression that this guy was getting out of the car and surrendering,” Crone said. “That was not what he was doing.”

Crone said he and Martin have more than 70 years of combined law enforcement experience, and neither had faced a similar situation before.

“We’ve had to fight with people and we’ve had to chase people on foot, but we have never had somebody that came out in that manner that we’ve gotta shoot this guy right now and that’s exactly what happened,” Crone said.

After the shooting, Crone and Martin placed themselves on administrative leave, which is standard procedure after any officer-involved shooting. A shooting involving the sheriff’s office leadership, however, was something new.

“I’m not aware of any sheriff and undersheriff, much less maybe one or the other, being put on administrative leave for being involved in a deadly force incident in any recent Colorado history,” Crone said.

Brittny Lewton, district attorney for the 13th Judicial District, reviewed the May 24 shooting. In her report, she determined that Crone and Martin would not face criminal charges, “as the use of deadly force was reasonably necessary under the circumstances.”

Crone said the shooting in May was the second in his career and the first for Martin.

“We’re not there to take lives,” Crone said. “We’re there to save lives and to protect people, but sometimes the actions of those people cause us to do otherwise.”

Before You Leave, Check This Out