The district attorney in Weld County has declined to clear a Fort Lupton officer of wrongdoing in a shooting because the officer won’t comply with the investigation and hasn’t explained why he turned off his body camera before firing.
In a report released Tuesday, Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke cleared one Fort Lupton officer, Sgt. Jeremy Sagner, in the April 17 shooting. But Rourke said the investigation into Sgt. William Carnes’ “potential criminal culpability remains unaddressed since he refused to cooperate.”
Carnes was the first officer to fire at suspect Smokey Crockett that day but his shot “is not captured on his body camera because he inexplicably turned it off shortly before firing,” Rourke wrote in his report. “For unexplained reasons, Sgt. Carnes’ body camera remained off until the conclusion of the incident.”
The incident began at 8:34 a.m. on April 17, when a woman claimed her ex-husband, Crockett, threatened to shoot her and any responding officers. Carnes arrived first, according to investigators, then claimed a shot had been fired in his direction and that he had fired back. Other officers arrived a short time later.
At 9:02 a.m., Crockett began walking down a street toward the officers, a gun visible in his right hand. Several officers ordered him to drop the gun. When he began to raise it, he was shot five times, according to the district attorney’s office.
Two officers were cleared in June and a third, Sagner, was cleared this week. But Carnes remains under investigation, according to Rourke.
“What, where, or why (Carnes) shot remains unknown given his refusal to provide a statement,” an investigator in Rourke’s office wrote in the report Tuesday.
