Officers involved in the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Kyle Miller last June aren't facing charges after an investigation revealed that Miller fired his Airsoft gun at an officer who responded to the scene, the Broomfield Enterprise reports.
Police were called to a suburb in Broomfield on June 28 after Miller's younger brother Alex Miller dialed 911 to report that his brother had stabbed himself with a pocketknife. Kyle Miller's family later said that he struggled with schizo-affective bipolar disorder and had tried to harm himself before, but that attempts to hospitalize him had been unsuccessful.
Alex Miller told a dispatcher that his brother had a fake gun on the call, but an officer -- believing the gun to be real -- fired and fatally shot Kyle Miller.
The following is an excerpt from a 911 call recorded between a dispatcher and Alex Miller:
AM: He's got the gun in his hand, is there any way you can let them know he's got the gun...?
Dispatch: He does still have the airsoft gun in his hand?
AM: It's not real, it's plastic.
Dispatch: I understand, well--listen, the officers are trained in this type of thing, they're not going to go around shooting people, you know, okay?
AM: Right, right.
Dispatch: They understand the situation here, so um, we just want to keep everybody safe.
AM: Okay.
Dispatch: Okay.
Broomfield Police said in a press release that Kyle Miller was later pronounced dead at the hospital, that the Adams/ Broomfield County Critical Incident Team would be called to conduct an independent investigative review of the incident and that the officers involved would be put on administrative leave.
According to the report, announced Thursday, Miller had removed the bright orange tip that sometimes is the only indicator to officers that a gun is fake.
Last January a 15-year-old in Texas was also mistakenly shot by police after they received a call about a student being armed with what turned out to be an Airsoft gun.
Though Kyle Miller's mother did not want to comment on the report findings, Alex Miller posted a heartfelt message on his Facebook page just days after his brother's death:
Along with all the prayers for my family and I, I would appreciate if everyone out there could please pray for the Broomfield Police, Firefighters, and Paramedics that were involved on this tragic day. I just want the officer to know I am not angry. My prayers go out to you and you families because that was not an easy thing to do. No one goes to work wanting something like this to happen.