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Springs Police release case reports in shooting that killed deputy

Posted at 11:33 AM, Sep 05, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-05 20:46:12-04

COLORADO SPRINGS – The Colorado Springs Police Department Wednesday released the 907-page case file from February 5 shooting in which El Paso County Sheriff’s Deputy Micah Flick was killed in the line of duty.

Deputy Scott Stone, Police Officer Marcus Yanez, and bystander Thomas Villanueva were also shot and injured when car theft suspect Manuel Zenina opened fire while being confronted at the Murray Hill Apartments.

Officers returned fire and Zetina was killed.

While portions of some documents are redacted, this release provides an even greater level of detail into events that led up to the deadly conflict.  Included among the pages of evidence reports and officer interviews are a handful of photos.

Two of the images are of Zetina on the day he was killed. They were taken by members of the anti-car theft BATTLE task force as they were following a stolen Saturn sedan.

The task force had tracked the car from a motel near I-25 and Fillmore to a home in Security and ultimately to the Murray Hill Apartments where the shooting took place.

State Patrol Investigator John Reindollar members of the Deadly Force Investigative Team it was determined that if a suspect takedown was going to happen that this would be an opportune time.

The team members agreed to wait until all resources were in the area before approaching Zetina.

Detective Deputy Stephanie Criss told the DIFIT investigators that she was riding with police officer Marcus Yanez. They got out of their car just behind deputies Micah Flick and Scott Stone.

As they approached, Criss said she saw Zetina reach in his waistband. She was in disbelief thinking surely he was not going to pull out a gun.

There was a quick movement followed by a lot of gunfire. Criss told investigators that both the suspect and Deputy Stone were wearing dark-colored hoodies. She had her gun out at the time but didn’t fire because she was trying to determine if she was looking at the right person.

“She said after that, people just began falling,” the report reads.

She knew that the suspect fell, as well as deputies Stone and Flick. Villanueva also fell right in front of her.

Hours after the shooting, investigators would learn that Zetina’s mother Monica Lopez-Ramirez lived in this apartment complex. She told investigators her son wasn’t allowed to stay with them because he’d been using drugs. He’d come to visit just a few days before.

She gave investigators two backpacks that belonged to Zetina, one had his clothes, the other had some tools and drug pipes.

District Attorney Dan May told reporters last month that his investigation into the shooting determined that Zetina fired the shots which killed Deputy Flick and injured Deputy Stone, Officer Yanez, and Villanueva.

Read the entire 907-page long report yourself, here.

 

Deputy Micah Flick
El Paso County Sheriff’s Deputy Micah Flick was killed in the line of duty in February 2018 while serving as part of an auto theft task force in Colorado Springs