1 deputy dead, 2 injured in Colorado shooting

Cpl. Nate Carrigan, a 13-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, was shot dead and two others were wounded by the gunfire – one seriously. “One of those deputies lost his life”, she said.

The officers fired back, killing the gunman.

A sheriff’s deputy for Park City, Colorado, was fatally shot on Wednesday, the Denver Channel reported. The suspect opened fire on them with a rifle, hitting all three.

Martin Wirth, 58, was apparently in foreclosure proceedings on his home, on which he defaulted in 2013, according to the Post.

The incident occurred in the Friendship Ranch subdivision of Bailey around 9:15 AM local time according to the Park County, Colorado sheriff’s department.

The property in question, on Iris Drive, was the subject of a 2014 protest lead by the Colorado Foreclosure Resistance Coalition, an activist organization. The website includes a video of a man identified as Wirth railing against mortgage companies as criminals.

The coalition states on its website that its goal is “to reverse the disastrous trend of foreclosures, evictions and sinking housing values”. Wirth also ran for state Senate in 2014 as a member of the Green party but was beaten by his GOP rival.

The exact location of the confrontation was not immediately available, nor was the nature of the injuries suffered by those involved, Balough said. The officer who was killed served 10 years on the force, Medina said.

A law enforcement officer blocks a road at the scene where a man opened fire on several sheriff’s deputies before the officers returned fire, killing the man, outside Bailey, Colo., Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. “It is a dark day”.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were also responding to the shooting, federal officials said.