PUEBLO, Colo. — A volunteer for the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office was temporarily suspended pending an investigation into a citizen’s arrest he made last fall, where new surveillance video appears to show him holding down a man while two other men beat him.
A spokesman for the Pueblo Police Department said in light of the new video, the department has opened a new investigation.
The case dates to September, when Doug Cullison made a citizen’s arrest of Alex Montoya, who is experiencing homelessness, after Montoya was accused of punching Cullison’s wife, a teacher at a Pueblo elementary school.
According to a police report, Montoya punched Maria Cullison in the jaw after she and other school staffers told him to leave Parkview Elementary School on Sept. 14.
Maria Cullison sent her husband a photo of Montoya, and Doug Cullison caught up with him a few blocks away. Surveillance video from a nearby business shows Cullison take Montoya to the ground, telling him to put his hands behind his back, the report says.
While Cullison holds Montoya on the ground, someone who appears to be walking by leans down and punches Montoya several times. Then another man, whom Montoya’s attorney identifies as Cullison’s son, Nate, arrives.
In the video, Nate Cullison, an MMA fighter, appears to take a running kick at Montoya and proceeds to punch Montoya repeatedly, at one point yelling “why did you hit my mom,” as Montoya screams.
> Below is the surveillance video showing the assault of a man during a "citizen's arrest":
“It’s pure vigilante justice,” said Shawn Conti, Montoya’s attorney. “You see somebody that wants to play police officer, they take the law into their own hands, and in the process, they end up committing a crime.”
In the video, Doug Cullison continues to hold Montoya down until Pueblo Police officers arrive.
In the police report, an officer wrote that he observed Montoya “had blood coming from his head and lip and he had several bumps on his head {SIC}.”
The officer said Doug Cullison told him he attempted to make a citizen’s arrest, and as Montoya was falling, “he scraped his head on the ground.”
The report doesn’t mention any other witnesses who were questioned on the scene that day and states Montoya was ticketed for battery and released on scene.
Neither Doug nor Nate Cullison responded to a request for comment on the video. A spokesman for the Pueblo Police Department confirmed an investigation into the case has been opened since the video was brought to their attention.
“If this would have been investigated properly, perhaps they could be facing even more serious charges because we're not really certain the scope or the extent of my client's injuries on the date that they assaulted him because PPD failed to do a thorough investigation,” Conti said. “So they failed to properly document how badly my client was injured."
Conti questions the validity of the citizen’s arrest, noting Colorado law requires anyone making a citizen’s arrest to have witnessed the crime in question.
“It's not OK for people to take the law into their own hands because we expect our police to be properly trained to be able to deescalate situations and to be able to identify people who may be suffering some sort of mental health episode and act accordingly,” Conti said.
Doug Cullison serves as a volunteer SWAT medic and a resource pool member working with inmate supervision for the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office.
Earlier this year, Doug Cullison was awarded the Non-Uniformed Member of the Year Award at a department awards banquet. The award wasn’t related to the citizen’s arrest.
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