Page 50 - AreaNewsletters "May 2021" issue

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My eld training o cer, Technician Ed Rusch, heard me calling in; he told me that he was catching up to me and not
to stop that van until he was there. We then learned that Trooper Charlie Fry had issued a ticket on Monument Hill in El Paso County when he was hit by the white Dodge van that had slowed brie y before speeding away NB on I-25. Fry was being airlifted to a hospital in Colorado Springs but he was in bad shape. I knew Charlie—he was a friendly guy who helped me cover a crash one time.
At 8:26pm I was NB on I-25 at Arapahoe Rd, still following that silver Dodge
van when Tech. Rusch caught up, so
I activated my overhead lights and
siren. The silver Dodge van that looked WHITE when I was close behind it nally stopped 1⁄2 mile south of Yale Ave in Denver.
Using a Felony Stop procedure, Tech, Rusch and I ordered the occupants out of the vehicle, one at a time. Rusch had his shotgun out while I had my .357 Smith and Wesson Revolver out,
as per policy. The driver,
later identi ed as Brent
Rickstrew, 25, walked
towards us with his arms
in the air; he laid on the
ground as ordered. The
passenger, Charlie Haas,
47, followed the same
directions.
Other law enforcement o cers arrived and helped to secure the scene. There was fresh damage on the right side of the van. It appeared that as the van struck Trooper Fry, the butt of his rearm dug
into the side of the van as it lifted him o the ground and ung him forward. A piece of light blue material that matched my State Patrol shirt was wedged under the antenna base on the passenger side of the van. The dust on the front bumper had an imprint in it that matched the pattern of weave of my State Patrol trousers.
Rusch and I approached the driver and
the passenger who were still seated on
the ground, in handcu s and guarded
by o cers. I immediately smelled a
strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on Rickstrew’s breath, and his eyes were bloodshot and watery. I advised Rickstrew that he was under arrest for Driving Under the In uence, and we were going back to Castle Rock for a blood test.
I placed Rickstrew in the front seat of my Mustang, put the seat belt around him and I got in the driver’s seat. At 8:57PM I told Dispatch my mileage and that I was headed back to The Rock with one in custody. I needed technicians at the jail for a blood test.
After we left the scene, I turned around at the Yale underpass, and we were headed back south to Castle Rock. It was getting dark so all of the police overhead lights on the northbound side of the highway were quite a spectacle. Rickstrew asked me why so many cops had showed up to arrest a simple DUI. He said, “You need that many cops to arrest someone who just killed a cop.” His comment made my blood run cold when I heard how casually Rickstrew said those words.
Once at the jail in Castle Rock, the
same one where I saw Ross Carlson, we completed Rickstrew’s rst blood draw and
May 2021 • Castle Rock “AreaNewsletters”
50
C O MMU N I T Y