Slain Colorado police officer was targeted for being a cop, officials say
19-year Arvada Police Department veteran Gordon Beesley was killed in a shooting outside of Denver in a ‘deliberate act of violence’; Alicia Acuna has an update on the investigation.
Authorities in Colorado on Friday released chilling excerpts from the twisted writings of the killer of Arvada police Officer Gordon Beesley, who was slain Monday.
The remarks were contained in a four-page letter seething with hatred for police officers. The existence of the letter had confirmed by a source to FOX 31 of Denver earlier in the week but Friday was the first time the station saw the letter.
“My goal today is to kill Arvada PD officers,” shooter Ronald Troyke, 59, wrote, according to the letter.
Other comments in the letter were equally frightening.
“Hundreds of you pigs should be killed daily,” he wrote, as well as, “I just hope I don’t die without killing any of you pigs,” “Today I will kill as many Arvada officers as I possibly can,” “This is what you get, you are the people who are expendable,” and “We the people were never your enemy, but we are now.”
Arvada police also released a video that shows the suspect get out of his vehicle, armed with a rifle, and shoot Officer Beesley, FOX 31 reported.
“It is clear that the suspect bears responsibility for this tragic sequence of events,” the release from the Arvada Police Department says, according to the report.
After Beesley was fatally shot, a citizen later described as a “good Samaritan” arrived at the scene and killed Troyke with a handgun.
Arvada police Officer Gordon Beesley, a 19-year veteran of the force, was killed Monday along with a civilian and a suspected gunman, police said.
(Arvada Police Department )
But tragically, that gun owner, identified as Johnny Hurley, was fatally shot by a responding police officer who had spotted Hurley holding the dead suspect’s AR-15 rifle, FOX 31 reported.
Hurley, 40, had been shopping nearby when he spotted Troyke with his rifle, a witness told the Denver Post.
In a release issued Friday, Arvada police acknowledged that Hurley’s death was an unfortunate outcome of the series of events.
“Mr. Hurley is a hero,” the police statement said. “He saved numerous lives,” including those of “civilians and other Arvada Police Officers.”
Troyke’s shooting of Officer Beesley and the unnamed police officer’s shooting of Hurley were being investigated as separate incidents, police told FOX 31.
Arvada police were investigating Beesley’s death, while a multi-agency team was investigating Hurley’s death, the report said.
The situation started at 12:49 p.m. Monday when Troyke’s brother called police and told them he feared Troyke might “do something crazy.”
Johnny Hurley was killed by an Arvada, Colorado, police officer after shooting a gunman who killed an officer moments earlier, police said. (Arvada Police Department )
Police went to Troyke’s apartment but didn’t find him there. Later, officers went to Olde Town Square to investigate a call about suspicious activity. According to the video, Troyke arrived at the scene, spotted Beesley walking away in the distance, then exited his truck with a rifle and chased after Beesley and shot him.
Beesley appeared to have been unaware that Troyke was approaching him until the very last moments. The officer had not pulled his gone prior to the shooting, police told the station. Soon after Beesley was shot, Hurley arrived at the scene.
Beesley was a 19-year veteran of the force.
In an interview with Fox News hours after the shooting, Arvada Mayor Marc Williams described Beesley as a “highly respected” officer whose “involvement in the community went far beyond just his police duties.”
“You’ve got an officer with a family who went to work this morning thinking he was going to do his public service and he didn’t come home,” Williams said. “I’m just so sad for his family and sad for our community that now we’re part of the statistic of these horrible losses.”
Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this story.
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