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El Paso deputy hurt during shootout with homicide suspect

The deputy, a 13-year veteran of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, is reportedly in "good spirits" after taking some shrapnel or possibly a shotgun pellet to his left side during a shootout with a homicide suspect Sunday morning. The suspect did not survive.
Credit: File
Lights of police car in night time.

An El Paso County sheriff's deputy was at Memorial Hospital Sunday afternoon after getting injured during an exchange of gunfire with a homicide suspect earlier in the day, El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder said at a press conference.

The deputy, identified as 36-year-old Jeremy Juhl, was part of a SWAT response to "several heavily armed men" along Loop Road in the southern part of the county, Elder said. The SWAT team started taking fire from one of the outbuildings there shortly after their arrival and started shooting back. A suspect was killed in the ensuing firefight, Elder said.

Juhl was clipped in his left side by either some shrapnel or a shotgun pellet during the shooting and was rushed to Memorial Hospital. Elder said Juhl was in good spirits and expected was released from the hospital Sunday afternoon.

SWAT responded to the location off Loop Road because of an earlier Sunday investigation related to a robbery that left one man critically injured and another dead off Highway 94, Elder said.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office took a call from staffers at Memorial Hospital saying an apparent gunshot wound victim who'd driven himself to the hospital told them someone was dead along Highway 94.

Deputies rushed to that scene and found a man dead there, apparently involved in a marijuana-related robbery, Elder said. While waiting for a search warrant at Highway 94, the Sheriff's Office got information that the Loop Road location was related to that shooting scene, Elder said. The Sheriff's Office already knew the two locations were linked in some fashion, he added.

That's when SWAT was dispatched to Loop Road, Elder said.

The Colorado Springs Police Department is heading up the deadly force investigation at Loop Road while the metro crime lab will process the scene at Highway 94.

No ID's are yet available for either the Loop Road suspect nor the Highway 94 suspect.

Elder said he believes the suspect shot dead at Loop Road was the suspect they were looking for in the Highway 94 incident, and that there is no danger to the public after the incidents.

While initial reports did have "several" armed men at the Loop Road location, Elder explained that his office is still in the early stages of the investigation and said there was only the one suspect at Loop Road.

Both incidents are believed to be connected to a much larger illegal drug trafficking operation the Sheriff's Office has been investigating for some time, Elder added.

"It's part of this continuing episode of illegal black market marijuana that we've been tracking in this county," Elder told gathered reporters. "I expect this is the tip of the iceberg."

The sheriff added that his office is putting a lot of heat on those suspected of involvement in illegal grows, executing warrant after warrant as soon as they can get them approved.

"I have a huge amount of concern for residents of eastern El Paso County and throughout the city of Colorado Springs where these [illegal marijuana grows] take place," Elder continued.

Elder wants residents to be prepared for continued police presence at both crime scenes for several days as the investigation wears on.

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