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Insane Reaction Time, Officer Quick Draws On AR Wielding Suspect
Published 3 years ago
Deputy Proulx, from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office was involved in a shooting on May 12th, 2017, at approximately 6:45 p.m. in the area of County Line Rd. and Santa Fe in the City of Littleton.
While patrolling the area, Deputy Proulx spotted a disabled vehicle, stopped beneath a bridge on County Line Rd., where he then approached the vehicle and offered his assistance. The vehicle at the time, was occupied by two women and a man, who was later identified as 25-year-old Deyon Rivas-Maestas. The occupants declined any assistance from the Deputy, as they mentioned someone was already on their way to assist them.
A short while later, a Honda Civic picked up the two females, leaving Rivas-Maestas in the white SUV. Again, Proulx approached the SUV a second time to offer to push the disabled SUV further off the road with his patrol vehicle. Seconds later, the unforeseen happened, when Deputy Proulx approached the driver's side of the vehicle, Rivas-Maestas exited the vehicle and lunged at Proulx with an AR-15 rifle, barrel up.
Deputy Proulx rapidly drew his firearm and fired two shots, striking Rivas-Maestas in the upper right arm and another that hit the open door of the SUV. Rivas-Maestas then ran around to the front of the SUV and fell to his knees, stating that "he did nothing". Lucky for the Deputy, It was later discovered the rifle was unloaded and had a cable lock on the trigger.
As a result, in February of 2018, Rivas-Maestas plead guilty to first-degree assault/threatening a peace officer with a weapon, landing himself a nice 16-year prison sentence. Deputy Proulx and all civilians in the area were unharmed.
