Three Adams County sheriff's deputies will not face criminal charges after fatally shooting a man who had just killed his ex-wife's parents and told 911 dispatchers he wanted police to kill him too. District Attorney Brian Mason announced that deputies Zackery Alvarado, Nicolas Kijowski and Kyle Franklin were justified in their use of deadly force against Robert Santistevan, who died from his injuries after being taken to a local hospital.
The shooting happened on June 6, 2025, after four Adams County deputies responded to a 911 call from Santistevan himself, who told dispatchers he had killed his ex-wife's parents inside their house, according to The Denver Gazette. Deputies arrived to find a pickup truck driven into the garage door of the house, and they later discovered two people dead in the basement. Santistevan called deputies on his phone and told them they would have to kill him when they arrived, a statement he repeated once officers were on scene.
According to the decision letter, Santistevan came out of the house with blood on his arms and something in his hand, then approached deputies with a knife. He ignored repeated commands to drop the weapon, and two deputies fired nonlethal foam bullets and a Taser at him in an attempt to stop him without lethal force. Santistevan withstood those less-lethal measures, told deputies to shoot him, and continued walking toward them before Alvarado, Kijowski, and Franklin each fired their handguns.
How Colorado Law Shaped the Legal Review
The 17th Judicial District Attorney's Office determined the deputies' actions were legally appropriate and will not file charges against any of the three. That conclusion rests on Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-1-707, the deadly-force standard significantly rewritten by the state's 2020 police reform bill, Senate Bill 20-217. Under that law, officers may use deadly physical force only after nonviolent de-escalation and less-lethal options prove ineffective, and the officer faces an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.
Mason's office says deputies followed that exact sequence, attempting the foam rounds and Taser before Santistevan continued advancing with the knife. An autopsy showed Santistevan had a blood-alcohol level of 0.138 percent at the time of death, well above the 0.08 percent threshold that constitutes legal driving impairment in Colorado under state law. The Adams County Sheriff's Office equips patrol deputies with 40mm launchers that fire foam impact rounds alongside Taser energy weapons specifically as non-lethal options during armed confrontations.
A Statutorily Required Independent Investigation
Colorado law requires that officer-involved shootings resulting in injury or death be independently investigated by a multi-agency Critical Incident Response Team, and it obligates the district attorney to issue a public report explaining the findings whenever no criminal charges are filed. That statutory mandate is what produced the decision letter clearing Alvarado, Kijowski and Franklin.
Mason has issued similar findings before. He previously cleared officers in an October 2024 Aurora police shooting of Kory Dillard and an August 2024 Thornton police shooting of Corey Shepard, in both cases determining that officers faced reasonable threats under the same use-of-force statute. Hoodline reported in February on a separate case in which Mason cleared cops after a standoff, and again in April when deputies opened fire on an armed man while pursuing a stabbing suspect.
Domestic Violence Resources in Adams County
The killings that preceded the shooting occurred against a backdrop of broader efforts in the 17th Judicial District to address domestic violence. The district attorney's office and local law enforcement established a multidisciplinary Domestic Violence High-Risk Team in 2022 and opened a consolidated Family Justice Center inside the Adams County Human Services Center to serve victims and families affected by family violence.
Adams County has also drawn scrutiny for its broader crime figures. A 2026 study analyzing 2024 FBI crime data found Colorado ranked eighth nationally in violent crime, with Adams County posting the highest combined property and violent crime rates among the state's ten most populous counties. The Adams County Sheriff's Office reported a multi-year drop in violent and property crime in unincorporated parts of the county as of July 2026, which it attributed to increased proactive patrol strategies and community outreach.
Crime Victim Compensation funds in Colorado disbursed more than $6.6 million in federal fiscal year 2025, with domestic violence expenses accounting for 32 percent of all state victim assistance payments administered through judicial district boards like the one covering Adams County. The district attorney's review closes the door on criminal charges against the three deputies, but it does not address questions about internal administrative review, potential civil liability, or what support may be available to the surviving family members of the victims.
