FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A man who was killed by Fort Collins Police after shooting an officer last month was a suspect in a cold case homicide from 2019.
Fort Collins Police Services said in a release that a Critical Incident Response Team opinion letter about a police shooting at Grandview Cemetery on July 21 shared that Clayton Pierce, 42, was also a suspect in a recently reopened homicide case.
In 2019, Fort Collins Police received a call for service saying there was a man, 63-year-old Joseph "Sonny" Brigman, who was lying unresponsive in his home. The Larimer County Coroner's Office determined that he had died from blood loss caused by a gunshot wound and ruled his death a homicide. Police said detectives exhausted all of their leads at the time and could not establish probable cause for criminal charges.
Detectives revisited the case in 2023, police said, in hopes of generating new leads and further examining evidence. They determined that there was enough evidence to prove Pierce was responsible for Brigman's death.
Before the shooting at Grandview Cemetery, detectives were in the process of formalizing charges. They were officially filed with the Larimer County District Attorney's Office on Tuesday.
Police said the district attorney's office would have pursued a first-degree murder charge against Pierce if he were still alive.
The opinion letter concluded that the officers' use of force against Pierce was justified. The officer Pierce shot was released from the hospital the day after the shooting.