On Dec. 24, three officers from the Colorado State Patrol and Boulder Country Sheriff’s Office approached a car on the side of Hwy 36 near mile marker 42. The officers discovered a bullet hole in the window of the car and began communicating with the man inside, later identified as Efrain Inda.
Officers asked Inda to put his hands outside of the car. Inda complied but pulled them inside the car again and did the same with his foot.
Inda exited the car with a handgun in one hand and his cell phone in the other. He was talking to someone on the phone. Officers asked him to put the gun on the trunk of his car, which he did but refused to move away from it.
Officers fired non-lethal rounds at Inda in hopes of getting him to move away from the gun which would allow officers to grab him. Inda grabbed his gun again and pointed it at the officers, according to a news release from the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office.
Officers fired lethal rounds at Inda and then requested medical help. They located Inda’s firearm before administering first aid, according to the report. Inda was pronounced dead on the scene.
The Critical Incident Team conducted a thorough investigation and found that the officers did not “commit a crime that could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” the report stated.
“The evidence establishes that, at the time Trooper Bockhold, Deputy Davis, Deputy Barcenas, and Deputy Finkbiner discharged their service weapons, it was reasonable for the officers to believe that Mr. Inda was armed with a firearm and that officers or bystanders were in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death,” the news release stated.
“On Christmas Eve, these law enforcement officers sought to help a motorist in need. The officers told Mr. Inda that they had families, that he was not in trouble, and that they wanted to help him. Despite all their courageous efforts to deescalate the situation, Mr. Inda grabbed his gun and fired at law enforcement. I appreciate the thorough investigation into this tragic incident, as well as the cooperation of the eyewitnesses,” said District Attorney Michael Dougherty.
