SandyMaloneFort Collins, CO – The Fort Collins Police Department released bodycam footage on Friday that showed police shooting a murder suspect who was armed with a sawed-off shotgun (video below).
George Randall Newman, 26, was shot and killed by a police sergeant on Oct. 1, 2017 at America’s Best Value Inn after he answered officers’ knock at his motel room door with a sawed-off shotgun in his hand, the Denver Post reported.
The incident began when police responded to a call for shots fired inside a hotel room after Newman fired a gun through the floor of his hotel room and into the room below, prompting the guests in that room to call 911.
Upon arrival at the motel, officers tried to call Newman, but he wouldn’t answer the phone, according to the Denver Post
Officers then talked to a woman in the parking lot of the motel who told them that she’d left her three-year-old daughter in the room with Newman while she left to go home and get her laptop, the Daily Mail reported.
Fearing for the toddler’s safety, three officers went to the door of Newman’s hotel room and knocked.
The video showed that Newman answered the door after their second knock, with a sawed-off shotgun in his hand.
Fort Collins Police Sergeant Justin Gallimore ordered Newman to drop his gun twice.
When he failed to comply, Sgt. Gallimore shot him twice in the chest, dropping him instantly. A little girl could be heard crying in the background of the video.
The second after the suspect was down, the video showed police rushing into the room to rescue the toddler and take her to safety.
Then police handcuffed the downed suspect, and cleared the room, before emergency medical personnel arrived and began chest compressions on Newman, the video showed.
Newman later died from his injuries.
All of the officers who were involved in the incident have been cleared of wrongdoing by the district attorney.
Larimer County District Attorney Clifford Riedel said in a letter that the use of “deadly physical force was legally justifiable and immediately necessary,” according to the Denver Post.
Sgt. Gallimore, an eight-year veteran of the Fort Collins police, believed his life, the life of two officers with him, and the life of the three-year-old girl were all at “imminent risk,” Riedel wrote.
The little girl was returned to her mother unharmed; however, there was an investigation into possible charges for the mother leaving the toddler alone in the room with Newman after he’d fired the first shot through the floor, the Denver Post reported.
Newman was later identified as the suspect in the fatal stabbing of 66-year-old Sherri Allman on Sept. 28, 2017, three days before he was shot and killed by police.
On Oct. 4, 2017, police conducted a welfare check at Allman’s home in 1600 block of North College Avenue in the North College Manufactured Housing Community in response to a call from a concerned friend.
Upon making entry to the house, officers found Allman’s dead body. It was later determined that she had died from multiple stab wounds.
Investigators said that evidence found at the crime scene linked Newman to Allman’s murder, and police determined that he was likely Allman’s killer, the Coloradoan reported.
Police said Newman attempted to burn Allman’s body after he stabbed her to death, the Daily Mail reported.
Investigators determined that the sawed-off shotgun Newman was holding when he answered the motel room door to police had belonged to Allman. Police believed Newman stole the gun when he murdered her, according to the Daily Mail.
That case is now closed, police said.
You can see the video of the shooting below. WARNING – Graphic Content: