A man was shot and killed and two Pueblo police officers were injured Saturday night after a home invasion call led officers on a vehicle pursuit that ended in a gunfight at the door of an upstairs apartment. Police identified the man killed as 36-year-old Luis Antonio Morales.
The chain of events began around 11:09 p.m. Saturday, when dispatch received a report of a home invasion in the 1600 block of Gaylord Avenue in southwest Pueblo, according to KRDO. Someone reported that a man who broke into the home had fled in a Dodge Ram, according to the Canon City Daily Record. Officers located the truck near Jones Avenue and Brimmer Avenue and began a pursuit, which ended when Morales abandoned the vehicle in the 0-100 block of Regency Boulevard and ran into a nearby apartment complex on foot, per the same KRDO account.
Gunfire Erupts at the Apartment Door
Officers followed Morales to an upstairs unit in the complex, where they knocked on the door and announced themselves as law enforcement, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. Morales opened the door, and gunfire was exchanged between him and the officers, the Daily Record reports. Morales died in the exchange.
One injured officer was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and both officers are in stable condition, per the Canon City Daily Record. Pueblo police have not released additional details on why the shooting began or whether the officers' injuries were gunshot wounds.
Mayor Points to a Troubling Tally
In the aftermath, Pueblo Mayor Heather Graham said on social media that the shooting brought the total number of Pueblo police officers shot over a two-year span to five, expressing relief that none of those officers had died, according to KRDO. Graham also publicly commended the responding officers and the hospital staff who treated them, the station reports.
In keeping with department policy, the officers involved in the shooting and the dispatchers who fielded the 911 calls were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, the City of Pueblo confirmed. Communications staff were placed on leave as well.
Independent Review Required Under State Law
The investigation now falls to the 10th Judicial District, the Daily Record reports. Under Colorado Revised Statutes § 16-2.5-301 and Senate Bill 20-217, any officer-involved shooting resulting in injury or death must be independently reviewed by a multi-agency Critical Incident Response Team that includes at least one outside law enforcement agency, rather than being handled by Pueblo Police's own internal investigators.
The circumstances of the shooting remain under investigation.
Part of a Troubling Pattern in Pueblo
The shooting comes roughly 19 months after a March 2025 shootout on Cedar Street, in which three Pueblo officers were shot and injured during a confrontation with suspect Billy Joe Soto, who fired an estimated 80 rounds from an AR-15 before officers fatally shot him, according to The Colorado Sun. That earlier shootout, which Hoodline previously covered, was followed by criticism from the police chief of bond and crime legislation, according to The Colorado Sun.
