Home Riddled With Bullets In Police Shootout
PARKER, Colo. (CBS4) - A father of two is dead after a shootout with police in Parker.
Police identified the suspect as Michael Marin, 35, of Montrose.
Shots rang out just after 10 p.m. on Saturday at the Creekside at Parker Condominiums on Twenty Mile Road near Pony Express Drive.
Bullets flew into the home of one resident as she sat inside.
"Bullets went through the door," explained Scotty Schwegel, who lives directly upstairs from the unit struck by gunfire.
Schwegel was at home with family members when he heard the storm of gunshots.
"It was about 15 shots," Schwegel told CBS4's Melissa Garcia. "It seemed like they kept getting closer, so that's when we moved into the bedroom."
Parker Police had arrived about fifteen minutes earlier after calls from tenants at the adjacent Trailside Apartments reporting a suspicious man knocking on doors in the complex.
Responding officers said that they first discovered the suspect's vehicle parked nearby with a mobile gun safe inside. When they ran the license plates, officers discovered that the vehicle had been reported stolen out of Mesa County.
According to police, officers spotted the armed suspect running into a breezeway between units.
The suspect and three officers opened fire, said Josh Hans, a spokesperson with the Parker Police Department. Bullets struck the suspect but no officers were injured.
The exact details leading up to the shooting were unclear.
Police found the suspect's handgun several feet away from his body, Hans said.
Officers performed CPR before paramedics arrived.
Marin died at the hospital.
"He was shot by the police. I want answers," said one grieving family member who showed up at the scene Sunday.
He said that Marin was the father of two children, and that he had been at the complex to look for his dad, who used to live in the area.
Although officers did not know Marin's criminal history at the time of the shooting, police later learned that Marin had multiple outstanding warrants for charges including aggravated robbery and possession of dangerous weapons.
"Everybody makes mistakes. But did he deserve to die?" a family member asked.
Police said that officers responded based on the threat that the suspect presented them with.
"It's a delicate balance when you get in a scene where you have residents. And based on the deadly force that our officers were confronted with, they understood that they needed to end the threat. And that's what they did," Hans said.
The three officers involved in the shooting are on standard administrative leave while the 18th judicial critical incident team investigates.
No residents were injured.
Melissa Garcia has been reporting for CBS4 News since March 2014. Find her bio here, follow her on Twitter @MelissaGarciaTV, or send your story idea to mkgarcia@cbs.com.
