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Witnesses Believe Officer-Involved Shooting In Aurora Was Justified

By Tom Mustin

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - Aurora police will hold a press conference on Thursday to discuss another deadly officer-involved shooting. It happened after a 17-mile pursuit of a carjacking suspect.

"Like pop, pop, pop, pop. Sounded like fireworks going off," Sam Chapin told CBS4's Tom Mustin.

Neighbors in the Heritage Eagle Bend retirement community woke up to the sound of gunfire.

"A lot more excitement than we're used to," Chapin said.

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Police say shortly after midnight Wednesday, a white male in his 30s carjacked a Jeep from a Wendy's parking lot on East Colfax Avenue and Chambers Road. Officers pursued the Jeep 17 miles to a dead end on Aurora Parkway right outside of Jim Binegar's home.

"This Aurora Parkway doesn't go anywhere, so he just ran out of road. He didn't know where he was going and ran into a dead end," said Binegar.

Police opened fire and killed the suspect after his car spun out on the road. Police are not saying if the suspect fired any shots.

Chapin arrived minutes later.

"It was obvious somebody was doing CPR on somebody. There were more police cars than I've ever seen in my life," he told Mustin.

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The scene of an officer-involved shooting in Aurora on May 11 (credit: CBS)

As daylight came bullet holes were clearly visible on the window of the stolen Jeep.

Police would not comment on their fourth officer-involved shooting since December, but Binegar says he believes the officers were justified

"I know they're getting a bad rap lately, but if a cop tells me to put my hands up, I'm going to put them up and I'm going to obey orders. If they unload on him and he hasn't obeyed the rules, I have no sympathy for him," he said.

As Aurora investigators tried to piece together another deadly shooting, Chapin also had little sympathy for the suspect.

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The stolen vehicle the suspect used in the chase (credit: CBS)

"Don't do it if you don't want to accept the consequences," he said.

The suspect has not been identified. Two women were taken into custody at the scene, but were not arrested.

Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz will address the media Thursday at 1:30 p.m. inside police headquarters.

Tom Mustin is CBS4's Weekend Anchor. He has been with CBS4 since 2002, and is always looking for great story ideas. Connect with Tom on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @TomCBS4.

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