A 20-year-old man is dead after Longmont police officers opened fire on him during a domestic disturbance call that turned into a hostage situation on Sunday afternoon. The man, who police say claimed to have a gun and took a victim hostage, was rushed to a hospital where he was later pronounced deceased. It marks the second time in less than five months that a Longmont police shooting tied to a domestic crisis call has ended in death.
According to 9News, Longmont dispatch received the initial call reporting a domestic disturbance at 2:27 p.m. Sunday. Three officers arrived at a residence in the 2300 block of Bluebird Drive, near Creekside Drive and Eagleview Circle, at 2:36 p.m., according to the Denver Gazette. Police say the 20-year-old suspect refused multiple commands from officers and told them he had a gun before taking a victim hostage. Shots were fired at 2:45 p.m., just nine minutes after officers arrived, and medical assistance was requested for the suspect three minutes later, at 2:48 p.m., per the same timeline.
The Longmont Police Department said the suspect is believed to have been a defendant in a pending Boulder County case involving the same victim he took hostage, though officials have not detailed what that earlier case involved. Colorado's mandatory arrest law under C.R.S. § 18-6-803.6 requires officers to take a suspect into custody whenever there is probable cause a domestic violence crime occurred, removing any discretion to simply issue a warning. Under a separate statute, C.R.S. § 18-1-1001, a domestic violence arrest automatically triggers a Mandatory Protection Order barring contact with the victim and requiring surrender of firearms before bond release. It remains unknown whether such an order was in place at the time of Sunday's shooting or how the suspect came to be with the victim if one existed.
Independent Team Now Leads the Investigation
As is required for any officer-involved shooting in Colorado, the case has been handed to the independent, multi-agency Boulder County Critical Incident Response Team, or CIRT, the report notes. State law under Colorado Revised Statute § 16-2.5-301 mandates that every law enforcement agency and district attorney in the state participate in a multi-agency team, including at least one outside agency or the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, to review any officer-involved firearm discharge that results in injury or death. Under CIRT's own guidelines, the Longmont Police Department is barred from playing any active role in investigating its own officer, with all findings submitted directly to the Boulder County District Attorney's Office.
Boulder County DA Michael Dougherty has a track record of issuing formal public decision letters and hosting virtual community town halls once officer-involved shooting reviews conclude without criminal charges, per public records from his office. That pattern played out just weeks ago: as reported by the Longmont Times-Call, Dougherty declined in July to file criminal charges against a SWAT officer who fatally shot 31-year-old Ashlyn Brownell during a March 19 domestic crisis standoff in Longmont, ruling the use of force legally justified. Whether Sunday's shooting will follow the same review timeline and outcome remains an open question.
A City Grappling With Repeated Deadly Encounters
Longmont maintains a specialized Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement team that pairs officers with behavioral health clinicians and paramedics for crisis calls, according to Longmont Public Safety records. Sunday's call, however, was answered by three standard patrol officers rather than that co-responder unit. Hoodline previously covered the March standoff shooting that killed Brownell, and reported in May that a Boulder County judge sentenced a Longmont man to 41 years in prison for a March 2024 domestic violence ambush on his ex-partner, with court records showing he was under an active protection order barring weapon possession at the time of the attack.
Key details about Sunday's shooting remain unresolved, including whether the suspect actually possessed a firearm as he claimed, and how body-worn camera footage from the encounter will eventually be released under the DA's established review process. The identity of the suspect has not been made public in the available reporting. Longmont has now seen multiple fatal shootings tied to domestic and gun violence calls this year, including a March incident in which a juvenile was killed and a youth was detained, and a July manhunt following a shooting near Loomiller Park.
