Gunman Vowed Not To Be Taken Alive

LIMON, Colo. (CBS4)- Officer Jay Sheridan, 27, was shot and killed while trying to serve an arrest warrant. He leaves behind a wife and a 21-month-old daughter.

Sheridan had been with the Limon Police Department 6 and a half years.

His life ended when he walked up to the trailer and attempted to serve a warrant, less than one mile away from where he lived.

The shooting happened Wednesday evening in a mobile home park on the west side of Limon.

The suspect, Dennis Mark Hasty, shot and killed himself after a 4-hour standoff with police.

Inside the trailer, investigators found boxes of ammunition. Hasty vowed not be taken alive, according to the mobile home park manager.

"Like, if he had been in his car, he'd say, 'I better not get pulled over; it's going to be a bad day for the policeman, because I'm not going to jail,'" said the mobile home park manager, who did not want to be identified.

When police did show up, the manager offered a warning to officers.

"Well, you be careful because he's got guns. I went back in the house and went out front to talk to the sheriff out front, and tell them, you know, maybe I can talk to him and get him to come out, but they said no, just go away. And then, right then, we heard three shots," said the mobile home park manager.

The officers who had entered the trailer took cover in a small bathroom. The gunman was right next door in the bedroom during the four-hour standoff.

About 10:40 p.m. Wednesday, SWAT teams burst into the trailer and they were able to free the two officers who were hiding inside. The gunman was dead after turning the gun on himself.

Hasty was wanted in Tennessee after violating the sex offender registry law after he was convicted in an incest case. Hasty lived in the trailer along with his wife. She was taken into custody Wednesday night.

Officer Sheridan grew up in Simla, about 25 miles west of Limon. The town of Limon had only 5 officers.

"This community knows Jay, and it's hit everybody hard, very hard," said Limon Police Chief Lynn Yowell.

"it's just a shame that something has to happen in our town like this, where everybody seems to know everybody. It's a real loss," said Sheridan's friend Marvin Wright.