THORNTON, Colo. — In the dead of night, an undercover Thornton Police Department unit quietly followed a car with missing plates out of Thornton and into Denver and Lakewood.
No lights. No sirens. Unmarked trucks. Mile after mile.
The officers – each a member of the city’s IMPACT team – communicated to one another on the radio.
“Coming up on 6th, going over the bridge,” an officer said.
“You guys want me to take that turn with him?” another asked.
Minutes later, an officer reported a bullet whizzed by his car near the intersection of Alameda Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard.
“Shots fired! Shots fired,” yelled another officer.
At Second Avenue and Garrison Street in Lakewood and with their lights and sirens finally on, the team initiated what’s known as a PIT maneuver. Seconds later, its members shot and killed two people – one unarmed – as the two attempted to jump out of the driver’s side door of the wrecked car.
“My son was stalked that night,” the mother of the unarmed man shot and killed by Thornton officers told 9NEWS Investigates after she reviewed GPS data recorded in the officers’ unmarked trucks.
“We want answers,” Deanine Vigil added.
Her son Joby Vigil was 31.
The April 30 pursuit was the third time in less than a year a quiet pursuit initiated by the IMPACT team ended in violence well outside of the primary jurisdiction of the unit.
Thornton Police refused to comment on the decisions made by the unit, which is devoted to, among other things, stolen car investigations. But an examination by 9NEWS Investigates of GPS data recorded in the officers’ unmarked trucks suggests it’s hardly unusual for the team to travel well outside of Thornton. Sometimes, much to the confusion of the people they’re following.
The data shows the precise 17-mile path taken by the unit the night they quietly pursued that car with the missing plates.
April 30, 2024
17.2 miles away from surveillance start
The IMPACT team’s radio sprang to life a little after 2:30 a.m.
“Washington and 83rd southbound. We have a little Infinity SUV kind of driving a little bit weird with no plates it looks like,” an officer said.
“He’s going to go westbound on 70th,” another officer said a few moments later.
The IMPACT team was officially on the move.
According to records reviewed by 9NEWS Investigates, the IMPACT team is designed to deal “with fugitive apprehension, motor vehicle theft pattern crimes along with whatever needs are for the department.”
Mile after mile, the IMPACT team followed the Infinity SUV in unmarked trucks. No lights. No sirens. And no requirement from the city that their body cameras be turned on.
At 58th, the SUV got onto Interstate 25. GPS data obtained from the trucks by 9NEWS Investigates gives a precise moment-by-moment look at where they went next.
South on I-25. West on Eighth Avenue. South on Federal Boulevard.
Not long after it passed First Avenue and Federal, however, the SUV did something unexpected.
“Alright, he just turned left. Eastbound. OK, he’s making a U-turn. He’s at Cedar and Federal,” the Thornton officer said.
Radio traffic and GPS data tells us what happened next.
Back on Federal. Northbound. West on First. South on Hooker. East on Ellsworth. South on Federal again.
On the map, it looks like one small loop.
“I looked at that, and it looks like they knew they were being followed. They absolutely knew they were being followed. That’s why they took the detour,” said David Thomas, a former police officer and current Professor of Forensic Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Thomas told 9NEWS Investigates that’s when the nature of the surveillance needed to change.
“The best practice, as far as I’m concerned, is to have a marked vehicle to be able to assist you in the stop you’re going to make,” he said.
He said the risk undercover officers run doing surveillance with unmarked cars is that, when spotted, they can be taken as an unknown threat by those being pursued, particularly late at night.
“The question then becomes 'who are you and why are you following me,'” he said. “Because in your mind you’re thinking 'I’m the actual victim' so that makes you defensive.”
A marked car would help alleviate any confusion, he said.
But that never happened. The unmarked trucks continued following the SUV with no plates. At Federal and Alameda, they all turned west on Alameda. When the surveillance approached Sheridan, someone in the SUV exited. The radio once again sprang to life.
“Shots fired! Shots fired!” exclaimed a Thornton Police officer.
“I heard a loud whizz over me,” another said.
Only then did the officers turn on their body cameras, sirens and lights.
A short chase ensued. Near Second and Garrison, an officer performed a PIT maneuver on the SUV, which caused the SUV to crash.
Body camera recordings show the two people inside the SUV both attempt to jump out of the drivers’ side door. Two seconds after officers yelled, “Hands!” the officers fired numerous shots at both Joby Vigil – who was unarmed – and Jasmine Castro. Castro appeared to have a gun in her right hand as she jumped away from the car.
“The way [Joby] was shot, I can’t explain it,” said Frank Vigil, Joby’s father. “I don’t know how to put it into words.”
May 31, 2023
8.1 miles away from surveillance start
When a member of Thornton’s IMPACT team spotted a Scion that seemed to match the description of a car involved in a burglary, he tried to approach the Scion in his unmarked car near 102nd and Quivas.
Shortly after, he said someone in the Scion fired on him.
The officer backed off but continued to follow the Scion as it got onto I-25 southbound.
According to a Denver District Attorney’s Office investigation, a marked car approached the Scion on I-25, but “the driver refused to stop.”
“He continued south to Denver,” the DA’s report said.
At 48th Avenue and Eliot Street, the Scion crashed into some concrete barriers.
There, Officer Scott Schilb shot and wounded Jedidiah Wilson. Schilb explained to investigators that as he was following the passenger on foot, he saw a muzzle flash, the report said.
Denver Police officers who responded to the scene appeared initially confused by the incident.
“Oh, for f---'s sake. This is a nightmare. And the shooting happened in Denver, so our shoot team has to work it,” the officer said.
Oct. 11, 2023
39.7 miles away from surveillance start
At 4:37 a.m., the IMPACT team spotted a black truck with “red spray paint on it,” according to a report from the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
They ran the plate and determined it was “found to be misused.”
During the quiet surveillance, the driver of the truck “doubled back and began following officers in an aggressive manner.”
At one point, officers attempted to “deploy a GPS system to track the truck.”
“While this was being attempted, [the driver] pointed a gun at officers through the driver’s side window and fired two to three rounds at them," the report says.
The ensuing pursuit took officers from Thornton into Douglas County and eventually into Castle Rock. That’s where Douglas County deputies took over.
“[The driver] continued to elude deputies and ultimately drove through the front entrance of the 7-Eleven convenience store at 80 Plum Creek Parkway, Castle Rock, Colorado, lodging the truck inside the store next to the clerk’s counter blocking the entrance,” according to the DA report.
Kyle Williamson was ultimately hit six times by the more than 30 shots fired by deputies. He survived and was subsequently arrested and charged with a variety of crimes.
Thornton Police initially agree to interview, then reverse course
An open records request for GPS data from Thornton’s IMPACT team staffed cars found it common for the team to venture well outside of Thornton. 9NEWS Investigates examined six months worth of data from the unmarked cars to determine the paths taken by the team.
While the team’s intent remains unknown during each of the instances we found them leaving Thornton, we did identify a few examples of when the team’s surveillance led to confusion among those who were followed.
For example, in February, Thornton police quietly followed a car from I-25 and 84th Avenue to the town of Dacono. Upon arrest, the person said he thought the people following him “was someone else trying to hurt him.”
We wanted to ask Thornton Police leadership a series of questions about the practices of their IMPACT team.
On Oct. 7, Thornton Police spokesperson Jesus Mendez told 9NEWS, “In the interest of transparency, we are happy to meet with you.”
“If you are able to wait for an on-camera interview, we can accommodate that request but not until after Nov 1,” he added.
On Nov. 5, Mendez said the office would no longer agree to that.
“In speaking with department leadership, we will be declining your request for an interview at this time,” he wrote.