Body-worn camera footage released Friday shows Colorado Springs officers shooting a woman roughly 15 seconds after she climbed into a marked patrol vehicle, according to a departmental briefing and the video. The woman, identified by authorities as 30-year-old Micaela Pasillas, survived with serious but non-life-threatening injuries and has since been released from the hospital. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has taken over the use-of-force review and will forward its findings to the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office for a determination.
What the bodycam captured
The edited footage opens as officers move in to detain Pasillas after a reported disturbance. One officer warns she will be tased, and within seconds, Pasillas climbs into the front seat of a marked patrol cruiser. What happens next unfolds quickly: an officer is heard saying, “Oh hell no,” another yells, “getting a gun,” and Officer James McKinstry fires three times, striking Pasillas at least twice, according to The Gazette. After the shots, she is seen lying on the roadway while officers move in to render aid.
Police narrative and outside probe
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office says officers were dispatched around 10 p.m. to the 1200 block of Delaware Drive after a caller reported a disturbance and said Pasillas was armed with a knife when officers arrived. According to the agency, she fled and discarded the knife during a foot chase. In its account, detailed by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Pasillas then entered a marked Colorado Springs Police Department vehicle, refused to get out, and reached for a duty shotgun stored inside the cruiser, at which point an officer fired and hit her. The Sheriff’s Office has assumed the investigation under state law that requires an outside agency to review any incident in which a civilian is struck by police gunfire.
Charges filed and legal review ahead
Colorado Springs police submitted an arrest affidavit on February 4 charging Pasillas with menacing, although that affidavit does not mention the shooting. Reporting and court records show additional charges were filed on February 12, including second-degree assault on a police officer, motor vehicle theft, resisting arrest, and obstructing a police officer. The court filings and the arrest affidavit, which state that Pasillas allegedly swung a knife several times and struck a car door, are detailed in reporting by The Gazette. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office will send its use-of-force review to the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which will decide whether the shooting was justified.
What the video does not answer
The video released by the department is tightly edited and, as local TV outlets have noted, it is difficult to see exactly where Pasillas’ hands were at the moment McKinstry opened fire. As KRDO points out, those gaps in the visuals are likely to factor into how prosecutors and investigators weigh the officers’ accounts against witness statements and court filings. The officer involved has been placed on routine administrative leave while the outside inquiry runs its course.
Wider backdrop in Colorado
Shootings involving law enforcement remain a high-profile concern in Colorado, and state public-health materials note that hundreds of people were killed or injured in law-enforcement shootings nationally between 2020 and 2024 while also documenting Colorado-specific data and trends. That broader backdrop is expected to inform how the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office evaluates the El Paso County use-of-force packet when it arrives. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment maintains a public resource bank with related data.
Pasillas was treated and released from the hospital and was booked into the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center on a felony menacing charge, local reporting shows. Investigators and prosecutors will now sort through video, witness statements, and forensic evidence as the use-of-force review moves to the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office for a charging determination and any criminal proceedings that may follow, according to KKTV.
