Officer-involved shootings The last fatal officer-involved shooting in Boulder County occurred in December of 2013, when Boulder County sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Bussard shot and killed Christopher George, 43, at his home southwest of Longmont. George had displayed a gun after Bussard responded to a call by George’s mother saying he had been holed up in his room for days. Just one month before that, Boulder police Officer Vincent Gallerani shot and killed Michael Habay at Wimbledon Condominiums, 3009 Madison St., after responding to calls of a man armed with a knife and a machete and allegedly making threatening remarks and “stabbing a post” outside his apartment. Both of those officers were cleared of any wrongdoing.

A peaceful retreat was suddenly converted into a complex crime scene Wednesday when a Boulder County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a man in a car in Eldorado Springs after reportedly seeing the suspect holding a gun to the back of another person’s head.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Heidi Prentup confirmed one man was dead as a result of the shooting at the Doudy Draw trailhead.

Deputies had been seeking a suspect in a car who was reported to have abducted two people at gunpoint in Westminster, when the suspect’s cellphone pinged in the area near Doudy Draw, Prentup said.

At around 1:30 p.m., deputies located the suspect’s car, a white Honda Civic, at the trailhead.

Prentup said two deputies saw a man in the back seat of the car with a gun pointed at the head of one person seated in the front of the car. One of the deputies fired a single shot with a rifle, killing the man.

Neither the man who was shot nor the other two occupants of the car have been identified by authorities.

Prentup would not say whether the deceased person was the alleged kidnapper in the Westminster case, or one of the people who had been abducted.

The men in the car — including the person shot — were related in some way, Prentup said.

“They are not necessarily father and sons. But they are all family members,” she said.

Previously, Prentup had described the trio as a father and two sons, and said that the dead man was one of the two sons.

Abduction in Westminster

The three men reportedly left a house on Benton Street in Westminster to discuss a vehicle title transfer.

But police were contacted about 11:40 a.m., and told by family members that two men were being held against their will in the car and that the suspect made several threats about killing everyone in the vehicle.

Not long after 1 p.m., deputies were able to trace 911 calls from the car to the Dowdy Draw trailhead. A trio of deputies found the Honda there, at the southern extremity of the trailhead’s parking lot.

“Deputies contacted the sedan, and were speaking with the occupants of the vehicle, and two of the deputies saw the person in the back seat holding a gun to the back of the head of a person in the front seat,” Prentup said.

“A deputy fired one round. There is one person deceased. No officers were injured.”

At the scene Wednesday afternoon, a body was visible for some time, slumped head-first out the rear passenger-side door of the Honda.

The two other people in the Civic were taken in for questioning after the shooting. Although one middle-aged man was seen with his hands cuffed behind his back, Prentup said no one had been arrested.

“They were taken out in handcuffs, so that we could determine what was going on,” she explained. “That is standard procedure.”

‘Never seen anything like this’

Deputies closed off the trailhead parking lot, and people returning to the trailhead from hikes were told they would not be able to move their cars until late evening.

One of those was recent University of Colorado graduate Jacob Kulchin. He had come down for some fresh air during his mid-day break from a nearby startup where he now works. Kulchin returned from his bucolic stroll to find his Nissan Frontier pickup in a zone sealed off by crime-scene tape.

“This would be a first,” he said, watching the investigators going about their work. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Deputies retrieved Kulchin’s backpack for him and offered to arrange alternative transportation home.

Boulder police, city of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks rangers, and Westminster police were all participating in the investigation.

The deputy involved in the shooting was being interviewed at the sheriff’s office late Wednesday and likely will be placed on paid leave pending an investigation by the Boulder County multi-jurisdictional shoot team.

Sheriff Joe Pelle was briefly at the scene and inspected the car. Members of the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office — including DA Stan Garnett — also were on hand.

Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan