THORNTON, Colo. — Video released last week by the Thornton Police Department shows the moments before officers shot and killed two people during a police pursuit nearly a month ago.
There's still much we don't know about what happened in the early morning hours of April 30. Here's what we do know.
According to Thornton Police, around 2:30 a.m. April 30, officers spotted a car with no license plate near East 84th Avenue and Washington Street. They tried to pull the driver over, but the driver didn't stop.
Police said they did not pursue the car at that time but did surveil it for more than 10 miles, following it to the area of West Alameda Avenue and South Sheridan Boulevard in Lakewood. That's when, police said, someone got out of the car and fired a gun at officers. Police have not released video of that.
Police did release radio traffic from that night. In it, officers don't initially sound concerned as they calmly call in that shots have been fired.
Then, officers formally begin a pursuit of the car, hitting high speeds until they reach the area of West Second Avenue and Garrison Street, where a PIT maneuver by officers forces the driver to stop.
The video released by Thornton Police on Friday is heavily edited and sheds little light on what actually happened. The body camera video lasts around 70 seconds in all, and most shows an officer driving. Police released it as part of a nine-minute "community briefing" on YouTube.
About one minute into the edited body camera video, we see the officer start a maneuver to get the driver they're chasing to stop. Moments after, the officer gets out of the car. One second later, the officer has their weapon in their hand and shouts "hands up" to the people in the car.
One person appears near the car as the officer gets closer. It's hard to tell whether the person is trying to lie down or falls, but they quickly appear to try to stand back up. That's when the video goes dark.
Immediately after, we hear a large number of shots being fired. As the audio of gunshots plays over a black screen, the police-provided and edited video describes it as "officers fire shots."
It's not immediately clear how many shots were fired or whether all of them were fired by officers, as the body camera video from Thornton Police never resumes.
But the nine-minute video provided by Thornton Police does include images of the two people dead on the ground.
In one of the images, a weapon appears next to one of the suspects. It's unclear how much time has passed or how the weapon happened to end up there because Thornton Police did not provide the full video, add more context or answer 9NEWS questions on what happened.
The Jefferson County Coroner's Office identified one of the people killed as Jasmine Castro. They declined to release the other person's name.
9NEWS reached out to Thornton Police requesting the full video and asking for clarification on why officers surveilled the car for more than 10 miles before the police chase formally began in Lakewood. Police have not responded.
The officers who fired their guns have been placed on administrative leave, per standard procedure. The shooting is being investigated by the Jefferson County Critical Incident Response Team.
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