Jason Pohl

jasonpohl@coloradoan.com

The man shot and killed by a Larimer County Sheriff's Office deputy during a Saturday morning SWAT standoff was not the same person he was before meeting the woman whom he reportedly held hostage in a Fort Collins-area mobile home, friends say.

The gregarious, fun-loving bodybuilder who loved motorcycles, the Denver Broncos and his teenage kids grew more distant since November, those who knew him said in phone interviews Wednesday. Philip Salazar had bouts of paranoia, one said. Another suspected some sort of substance abuse might have accounted for the 38-year-old man's sudden behavioral shift. The phrase "toxic relationship" came up repeatedly in his inner circles. That might help make some sense as to why he reportedly barricaded himself and a woman in a room Saturday morning, defying orders as an armored SWAT vehicle towered over the front door and a cadre of law enforcement stormed into the mobile home in the Collins Aire Park in northeast Fort Collins.

Longtime friends, still in shock, are trying to make sense of it.

“It just seemed all of this happened very quickly,” said Carrie Kepler, who worked with Salazar for years at Gallegos Sanitation, Inc. He was a driver who had a knack for teaching and an unparalleled work ethic, a jokester who would quip with Kepler and call her "Care Bear."

“Phillip just changed. This is just so wild for him and for us. We’re all left here with questions, too. We don’t understand.”

Friends are optimistic they'll have a clearer picture of what happened soon.

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"It's just a hard situation," said Daniel Saighman, who has known Salazar since their days attending Poudre High School. Salazar was a devout Denver Broncos fan, and the two went to a game years ago. Sunday's Super Bowl will be bittersweet as speculation looms about the shooting.

"We weren't there. We don't know. The investigation will hopefully shed light on what happened that day," Saighman said.

The Coloradoan has been in contact with the woman Salazar reportedly held hostage, but she declined to comment for this article. Official details about the extent of her injuries have not been made public, though law enforcement said previously she was not seriously hurt.

Kendra Frederick knew Salazar for 17 years, and they would regularly work out at the gym together. She watched his two kids — now ages 18 and 15 — grow up.

"Philip lived a very normal and upstanding life until he started dating that girl. From that, it kind of spiraled out of control," she said, still trying to make sense of the chasm between the man she knew for years and the man who made headlines.

"Something just went horribly, horribly wrong."

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A team of investigators, headed by Fort Collins Police Services, is leading an investigation of what happened late Friday night when sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of a domestic disturbance about 11:35 p.m. Details remain sparse about what happened next, though sheriff's officials said Saturday a deputy "believed the suspect had a weapon in his hand," as he advanced toward SWAT team members who entered the residence after learning Salazar posed an "imminent threat to the hostage."

It was revealed on Monday Salazar was clutching a pair of scissors. That announcement renewed criticism about law enforcement protocols surrounding the use of deadly force. Another deputy fired a still-unspecified number of shots, fatally wounding Salazar.

The county SWAT team is equipped with pepper ball and stinger ball launchers, 40mm Sage-type impact rounds, chemical munitions and Tasers, spokesman David Moore said. It has not yet been released to what extent, or if at all, any of those devices were used during the standoff.

The vast majority of SWAT calls around the country are for serving warrants. A smaller number of deployments are for barricaded subjects, and an even smaller number are for hostage situations, said FCPS Lt. Dan Murphy, a 32-year law enforcement veteran who trains SWAT team personnel across the country. Murphy is also the western director of the National Tactical Officers Association.

Though he couldn't speak directly about the Saturday night situation, Murphy did talk generally about deciding when to shoot and the challenges posed by hostage situations and confined space altercations, such as those in a mobile home.

Teams operate under a "priority of life" system in hostage situations. That means the safety of the hostage is the main priority, followed by bystander safety and that of police. The suspect's well-being is the fourth priority.

Domestic violence situations have a higher propensity for violence than other types of SWAT calls, largely due to the emotions, he said.

"Generally in a hostage situation, less lethal is not considered because less lethal is not 100 percent effective. You want to ensure the safety of the hostage," Murphy said. It's a decision further complicated when negotiations span hours. He said "waiting it out" doesn't always work because, while it gives officers a chance to make contingency plans and negotiators more time to work, it is also means a suspect can have more time to plan a next move.

He recognized armchair quarterbacking in the wake of an incident is inevitable. But he was quick to point out that popular perceptions of "shoot to wound" portrayed on television don't necessarily represent the reality of dynamic situations.

"We shoot to stop the threat," Murphy said. "The situation is going to dictate those tactics."

An investigation is ongoing into Saturday's incident. The Larimer County District Attorney’s Office deferred comment about the investigation to Kate Kimble, spokeswoman for FCPS.

It's not yet clear how long it will take to determine the facts in this case, partially because of a modification in how officer-involved shootings are investigated in Northern Colorado.

A multi-agency Critical Incident Response Team Protocol was enacted last year, and Saturday's shooting is the first time it has been used for the sheriff's office. A consortium of law enforcement agencies in Larimer, Weld and Jackson counties have agreed to a set of rules that govern how shootings are investigated. According to the policy, the goal is "to conduct a thorough investigation of the highest quality" that allows the district attorney's office to decide whether any wrongdoing occurred.

The organization involved in the shooting is also limited in its investigative role, the goal being to limit the conflicts of interest that might arise if agencies investigate themselves.

Reporter Jason Pohl covers breaking news and law enforcement for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter: @pohl_jason.