Associated Press
AURORA, Colo. — Aurora police are investigating after a parole officer with the Colorado Department of Corrections shot a man while checking on a parolee on Monday.
Police said the man who was shot was not the person they were trying to find. The man pulled a gun on them in an apartment, and an officer shot him, they said.
The parolee was in the apartment at the time, but the parolee was not taken into custody, police said. Details of the parolee’s police record were not available.
The unidentified gunman was seriously injured, police spokesman Chris Amsler said. The two parole officers were not hurt.
“When they entered the apartment, they were confronted by an armed man. Shots were fired by a parole officer, and the man with the gun suffered serious injuries,” Amsler said.
No arrests were made pending an investigation, Amsler said.
No names have been released. Aurora police will turn over their report to the Adams County district attorney, Amsler said.
In March, an Aurora police officer shot and killed an unarmed parolee.
The officer killed 37-year-old Naeschylus Vinzant (Na-SHY'-luhs VIHN'-zant) as officers tried to arrest him after he removed a state Department of Corrections ankle monitor, police said. The officer later returned to duty.
Vinzant had an extensive criminal history dating to 1994 that included arrests on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon, attempted homicide, first-degree assault, being a previous offender in possession of a weapon and felony menacing, according to police records.
In December, a Canon City police officer shot and killed Brandon Atencio after police said he charged them with a knife. Atencio had been on parole for a 2011 assault conviction in Colorado and served time for robbery in Nevada, authorities said.