Feb. 21, 2023 While in the process of being booked into jail, a woman slipped out of her cuffs, snatched a Fort Collins police officer’s gun and barricaded herself in a police vehicle for over two hours.
By Jacob Factor Source The Denver Post Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A Greeley woman was arrested Sunday after barricading herself in a police vehicle at the Larimer County jail while armed with an officer’s gun.
The woman was initially being arrested in connection to a Fort Collins shoplifting incident that happened just after 4 p.m. While Fort Collins officers were in the process of taking her from the police vehicle into the booking area, the woman slipped out of her handcuffs, according to a news release from the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office.
The officer had reportedly secured his duty weapon, the news release states, but the woman “manipulated the storage safety measures” and grabbed the gun. She tried to take the officer hostage at gunpoint, but the officer escaped to the secure area of the jail.
The woman then barricaded in the police vehicle and refused to come out for over two hours.
Fort Collins police officers, Larimer County Sheriff’s deputies, the LCSO All Hazards/Crisis Response team, Fort Collins’ SWAT team, LCSO crisis negotiators, Poudre Fire Authority, and UCHealth EMS all responded to assist.
Law enforcement officials used “numerous less-lethal tools” to get the woman to surrender, and at 7:30 p.m., the woman exited the vehicle and deputies arrested her.
She was booked into jail after a medical evaluation on charges of first-degree assault and aggravated robbery, attempted second-degree kidnapping, criminal mischief of $5,000 to $19,999, disarming a peace officer and resisting arrest for the incident, according to the news release. Fort Collins police will file separate charges for the shoplifting incident.