 Good afternoon. My name is Matt Clark, CLA-RK. I'm the commander of the Denver Police Department's Major Crimes Division. I appreciate you being here today and providing us an opportunity to offer an update on the incident involving the police officer who was shot, as well as the police officer involved shooting that occurred at the Denver Detention Center at 490 West Colfax on Monday, November 28th, 2022 at approximately 10.55 PM. This is intended to be a preliminary briefing based upon information gathered to this point. That includes interviewing the available witnesses, speaking with several of the involved officers, and analyzing evidence that's been collected at this point. This investigation is in the early stages and there may be information I either don't have or cannot disclose at this point, which may limit my ability to answer questions after we provide an overview. Also, please know that the injured officer has not been interviewed in this case. The injured officer was one of the arresting officers, and his interview will help offer insight into the searches that were conducted and the firearm ultimately that was involved in this case. That officer has not been interviewed at this point as he continues to recover. On Monday, November 28th, 2022 at approximately 9.00 PM, Denver Police officers assigned to the District 4 Impact Team located a suspected stolen vehicle near Kentucky Avenue and Lowell Boulevard. The impact teams for the Denver Police Department are proactive units that are responsible for handling specific crime issues in the given districts. This team routinely focuses on addressing auto theft issues through the recovery of stolen vehicles in the apprehension of offenders. This team uses unmarked police vehicles. These vehicles often have emergency equipment, as well as undercover vehicles that are not meant to be patrol type vehicles. Officers in the unmarked vehicles where police uniforms, while those in the undercover vehicles are typically in plain clothes. In the area of Kentucky and Lowell, the officers observed a silver Ford F-250 that was stationary in the roadway next to another vehicle that was also stationary blocking the roadway. The officers cleared the license plate of the truck and determined that the color of the vehicle did not match the registration color that was listed for that vehicle. The officers also cross-referenced a vehicle hot sheet, which is a stolen vehicle list of vehicles that have been stolen throughout the metro area, and determined that a vehicle matching the description of the truck was listed on that stolen vehicle hot sheet. The officers observed the driver who was out of the vehicle at the time get back into the vehicle and drive away southbound. Uniform officers who were in unmarked patrol vehicles followed that truck and attempted a traffic stop near Arkansas and Perry Street. The individual, the driver did not stop, but instead continued southbound from the area. The officers who attempted to stop the vehicle deactivated their lights and pulled over per our protocol. A vehicle pursuit was not initiated at that point. Undercover officers who were in plain clothes continued to monitor the vehicle. At approximately 915, the officers called out that the vehicle was stationary in the 1600 block of South Michigan way. That's in the area of Iowa and Lowell Boulevard. The undercover officers observed the driver exit the vehicle. At this point, since the occupant had separated himself from the vehicle, uniformed officers began making their approach to make contact with the suspect. The driver of the truck fled on foot, but was quickly apprehended by officers. Following the foot chase, the driver was immediately handcuffed behind his back. After being escorted back to the officer's vehicle, they recognized that the offender had a backpack on his back that was tied up in the handcuffs. The officers briefly released the handcuffs so the backpack could be removed before re-hand cuffing the individual behind his back. An officer at this point conducted a search of the offender before placing them into the back of the caged patrol vehicle. While this was occurring, another officer completed a search of the backpack that the subject had just been removed. The officer located a six-hour nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun in that backpack, as well as suspected fentanyl pills. The two uniformed officers were apprehended. The offender transported into the Denver Detention Center for processing and to complete their paperwork. They left for the detention center at 928, and arrived 10 minutes later at 938. The officers parked their vehicle in the secured vehicle sally port of the Denver Detention Center. While in the sally port, the officers conducted database queries, they worked on preliminary paperwork, and during this time the offender was in custody in handcuffs in the back of the patrol vehicle. Around 1055, one of the officers opened the rear driver's door, which was the position where the offender was seated in the patrol vehicle, and the officer began interacting with the offender in the doorway of the vehicle. The officer briefly removed the offender from the vehicle before having him sit down again inside. At that time, the other officer, his partner came around the side of the vehicle onto the driver's side. At this point, the officer is in the open doorway of the back behind the driver's position talking directly to the offender who's directly in front of him, and the other officer is to his left there, his partner. At this point, without warning, the offender leaned to his right and discharged around from the firearm. Okay, if everybody's good, I'll continue, you're smooth, camera's good. All right, sorry about the brief pause there. I'll just kind of back up just for a minute. The officer at this point is directly in contact with the offender who's seated in the back of the patrol car behind the driver's position. His partner's to his left and the doorway is open there. Without warning, the offender leaned to his right and discharged around from the firearm at the officer who was in the back doorway there. The offender's hands were cuffed behind his back when the round was fired and the round that was fired struck the officer in his neck. The injured officer was able to get to the back of the vehicle and then moved to the side of another vehicle that was nearby for safety. At the same time, two officers, a corporal who was a training officer with the department, as well as an officer who's in training, were in the Sallyport Park directly next to the vehicle the offender was being contained in. These officers were at the detention center in an unrelated prisoner transport. The officers heard the initial shot that was fired and immediately drew their firearms. The corporal exited his vehicle as additional shots were fired by the offender. The corporal believed the offender was firing directly at him and quickly moved to the passenger side of the vehicle that was containing the offender. The corporal discharged his weapon multiple times striking the offender who's in the back seat of the vehicle at the time. Officers immediately notified the dispatcher of the shots that had been fired and this occurred at 10.56 p.m. Ambulances rushed to the scene for the officer and the offender. Both were transported to Denver Health Medical Center for treatment. Through the investigation, it was determined that the offender was in possession of a Smith and Wesson nine millimeter semi-automatic firearm. The offender discharged four rounds from that gun. The firearm the offender possessed was reported stolen in Denver in September of this year. The involved Denver police officer discharged nine rounds from his duty handgun. The offender was struck by multiple rounds. The vehicle the offender was driving was a Silver 2005 Ford F-250 which was previously reported stolen in Aurora in early November. This incident was well documented on video including surveillance video within the Sally Port at the Denver Detention Center as well as the body worn cameras of the officers that were activated both at the location of the arrest and in the Sally Port following the shooting. In terms of the offender, he's been identified as 33-year-old Daniel Cheeseman. He is currently being held for investigation of attempted homicide of a police officer as well as possession of a weapon by a previous offender. Mr. Cheeseman remains hospitalized in critical condition. He's considered stable and expected to survive. Because of the medical state, he has not been booked into the jail and he has not had his first advisement in court at this point. We feel extremely fortunate that the injured Denver police officer who was shot during this incident is doing well and is expected to make a full recovery. He's been released from the hospital and continues to recover at home. The officer who discharged his weapons a corporal assigned to District 4, he's been with the department since 2015. And the officers involved in this incident are currently on a modified duty assignment as this investigation continues. The investigation of this critical incident is being conducted by the Colorado Bureau of Investigations, the Colorado State Patrol, Denver Police Homicide Unit and the Denver District Attorney's Office. It's being overseen by the Office of the Independent Monitor, which is a civilian entity. At the conclusion of the multi-agency investigation, the case will be submitted to the Denver District Attorney's Office who will determine whether the officers' actions were in compliance with state law. After the district attorney renders her decision, the department's internal affairs barrel and conduct review barrel will determine, excuse me, we'll review all aspects of this case and thoroughly examine what transpired to determine whether there were policy or tactical violations. It is clear that a firearm was missed during the search that was conducted. The administrative review will attempt to determine how that occurred, as well as any potential discipline that may occur. That's the point, that's all I have relative to the overview. We can answer questions and Chief Thomas is available as well. Do you know where he's holding, where he was hiding it? The question was if there's any idea where he was hiding it, we are not clear at this point. He is not available for an interview and again, we are waiting to interview the injured officer as well. This was a gun that had been in the car and he picked up within the car. We examined, the question was whether the gun was potentially in the car prior. We have examined that. The police car is a Chevy Tahoe. It's a full police vehicle with a cage. So there's a plexiglass separating the front and back of the vehicle. The back seat does not separate like a typical carwood. It's a one-piece thick plastic that the prisoners or transport ease sit in there and there was no firearm in the vehicle when the offender was put in the vehicle. Would it be one or two officers that can face internal first investigation without finding the gun? This entire incident will be reviewed to determine who conducted searches and at what point and if the searches were, where there was an issue. So it's potential that multiple could. Has any medical personnel shared with you and achieved how fortunate the officer was like any entry to in the next life that it could take? Yes, so we did have discussions with medical professionals at Denver Health Medical Center. I was able to see the officer myself and certainly had that bullet up in, you know, just slightly to one direction or another. It could have been much more significant injury. No, it was a through and through wound. So through and through wound, thankfully no vital organs or anything that was significant, no arteries or anything like that. There doesn't appear to be any nerve damage. So just a flesh wound, but serious nonetheless. Is it unusual? No, so, you know, the officers were delivering him to the Downtown Detention Center and it's customary for them to park, exit their vehicles and then go to the back and remove that prisoner from the vehicle. So I don't think that there's anything different than normal occurred there. Yes, there will be investigation into the fentanyl possession or the suspected fentanyl possession as well as the additional gun possession. We already, I put significant resources throughout the city. You know, we're involved in a number of partnerships and task forces in order to address the out of theft issue, certainly. Is it CBI, CSP, and Denver police that are investigating how the officers missed the gun or just DPD? So right now our primary focus is on the recovery of the officer and on the investigation of the incident and of the officer involved shooting so that we can present that case to the district attorney. And then it will be our internal affairs bureau who then begins the administrative review of the incident, you know, the shooting itself to see whether there are any policy violations there as well as the fact that it would appear as though a gun was missed during a search. So that would just be DPD, that would not involve CBI? That is correct. I think one thing, chief, we were gonna just produce a brief screenshot of one of the surveillance video images just to provide context of what the internal Sally Port looks like and the proximity of the officers and what that looked like. So the arresting officers, the impact officers were in this unmarked Chevy Tahoe. This is a, again, a caged police transport vehicle suitable for transporting prisoners. There are other officers there. This officer in the cart right as you're facing the screen is there on the unrelated call. That's the corporal and the officer who's in training. The corporal is in the passenger seat. This particular still shot, the gunshot is, the initial gunshot has just been fired. This is the one that's gonna strike our officer who's in the doorway here. You can see the other officer is recognized the gunshot and is taking cover. And the officer in the front passenger seat, the corporal is gonna get out of his car. He recognizes that he's being shot at as well. And we did, through the investigation, find two defects in his vehicle, one in the mirror and run in the front fender of that car before moving around and engaging the individual on the passenger side of the vehicle. That's my understanding. They were pretty, they were back to back. So at this point, I don't have a timeframe. We don't intend to identify him today as he continues to recover and heal at home. Thank you.