An emergency call moments before Saturday’s shooting rampage in Colorado Springs has sparked debate on how police should respond to armed people in public given Colorado’s open carry law.
Naomi Bettis told The Denver Post she called 911 after spotting her neighbor, 33-year-old Noah Harpham, armed with a rifle on the street. She says a dispatcher explained Colorado allows public handling of firearms.
Harpham killed three people.
The law has become a central focus after scores across the country took to social media to question the Colorado Springs police department’s apparent lack of immediate response to Bettis’ report.
Police agencies statewide say the statute poses a difficult question of how to react when citizens call – frequently – to report an armed person in public. Is it an emergency or not?
“A lot of (our reaction) depends on information we obtain from the person calling in,” said Julie Brooks, spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office. “The information we get from the caller is vitally important.”
Colorado Springs police have yet to speak at length about their response before and during the rampage, including whether or not officers were dispatched after Bettis’ call.
Harpham killed Andrew Alan Myers, 35; Jennifer Michelle Vasquez, 42, and Christina Rose Baccus-Gallela, 34. He died in a shootout with officers.
Myers’ grandfather said his grandson was a father of two who spent a decade in the Army and three Iraq tours .
Denver-area law enforcement agencies say their response to armed people in public varies on the circumstances.
“Is this person exercising their rights or about to start a very serious situation in which someone is going to be killed?” said Jacki Kelley, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. “We just don’t know the difference.”
Kelley said deputies, for instance, respond with lights and sirens blaring when an open carry situation is reported outside a school. Recently, the sheriff’s office has twice fielded reports from alarmed citizens when someone had a gun in a movie theater.
In those situations, deputies made an emergency, immediate response.
“That can be sensitive because of the Aurora theater shooting,” Kelley said.
Denver police say they respond to reports of a person openly carrying a firearm because it’s banned in the city.
Dan Montgomery, who served for 47 years as a police officer, including 25 years as Westminster’s chief, said he feels police in Colorado Springs should have rushed to the neighborhood after Bettis’ initial report on Harpham.
“That is just too suspicious,” Montgomery said.
