COLORADO SPRINGS — A grand jury has found that two Colorado police officers were justified when they shot and killed a black teenager during a foot chase.
KRDO-TV reports El Paso County District Attorney Dan May announced the decision Wednesday in the Aug. 3 death of 19-year-old De’Von Bailey in Colorado Springs. Bailey was shot three times in the back and once in the arm while running from police.
Body camera footage shows officers talking to him and another man in a neighborhood about an armed robbery that was reported nearby. Bailey runs away as he is about to be searched and is shot after he puts his hands near his waistband.
Police say they found a gun in his shorts.
Bailey was shot three times in the back and once in the arm while running from police.
Gov. Jared Polis, who called for May to hand the investigation off to another jurisdiction and met with Bailey’s family, said in a statement Wednesday night “nothing can ever prepare a parent for losing a son or daughter.”
“The Bailey family and the community must be given the space to grieve and move forward,” Polis added.
The governor did not specifically comment, however, on the grand jury’s decision.
Colorado Springs police Chief Vince Niski on Wednesday said that his community had been tested by the shooting as he sought to reassure the city about his officers’ work.
“There is no doubt that the community of Colorado Springs has been tested over the last few months,” he wrote in an open letter. “What happened on Aug. 3, 2019, is something neither police officers nor citizens ever want to experience. The loss of a son, a friend, a community member, is a devastating event that impacts all of us.”
Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.