Three Littleton Police Department officers and an Englewood Police Department officer were justified in shooting two women who led police on a violent car chase through three cities in June, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann has determined.
Littleton officers Anthony Guzman, Luke McGrath and Joseph Carns and Englewood officer Brian Martinez knew the car’s occupants had been involved in an earlier carjacking where shots had been fired, McCann wrote in a letter to the chiefs of each department.
The driver, Marta Sanchez, then led police on a high-speed chase where she ran red lights and nearly hit a motorcycle as she tried to elude police. Each time officers stopped the car, Sanchez would drive toward them and race off, the letter said.
Officers shot at the car 44 times on three occasions before the chase ended. McCann’s analysis also determined that Guzman had used deadly force when he hit the suspect vehicle with his patrol SUV as it made a left turn.
“With each subsequent use of force, the suspect vehicle’s continued efforts to escape from police demonstrated a brazenness that justified the officers’ fears that the suspects posed a significant risk of danger not only to the officers but to the public at large,” McCann wrote.
The chase began after midnight on June 29 when Littleton police were dispatched to a carjacking outside a Dunkin Donuts on the 4600 block of Mineral Avenue. McGrath spotted the stolen car outside a gas station and followed it as it began to drive north on South Santa Fe Drive. Guzman and Carns joined the pursuit, the letter said.
Officers were able to stop the car through a driving maneuver in the 1400 block of South Santa Fe Drive and twice in the 1200 block of South Bannock Street. Each time, officers shot at the car. In all, officers fired 44 times at the three scenes, the letter said.
The chase finally ended at the intersection of South Bannock Street and Louisiana Avenue when Sanchez, 26, was shot multiple times, the letter said. She became a paraplegic because of her injuries.
The female passenger, Stephanie Lopez, 32, died at the scene from a gunshot wound to her head, the letter said. The investigation determined that she had been killed during the second traffic stop.
A third passenger in the car told investigators that he had jumped out of the car at Bannock and Mississippi because he was scared. A fourth person involved in the carjacking had fled at the gas station in Littleton.
Toxicology tests found that Lopez had methamphetamine, marijuana and alcohol in her system. Sanchez had taken methamphetamine and marijuana, the letter said. Both women were wanted by police — Sanchez on three arrest warrants and Lopez for a parole violation from the Colorado Department of Corrections, the letter said.
Inside the wrecked car, police found a loaded .38-caliber weapon in a purse, a large knife, 115 grams of meth and 16.75 grams of powder ibuprofen along with needles and a scale, the letter said. However, no one in the car fired shots at police.
