Off-duty cop kills man during fight over littering
Posted on December 18th, 2007 by bile Categories and Tags: Uncategorized, Arapahoe County, Daniel Montana Jr., death, guns, Indiana Street, Jefferson County, Lakewood police, Michael Hunter, Montana, police, Rossiter Hunter 1 Comment »The Arapahoe County sheriff has opened an internal investigation into the actions of an off-duty deputy who shot and killed a man in a traffic altercation.
The probe of Deputy Daniel Montana Jr. in the Nov. 2 shooting was launched Monday — the same day it was announced a Jefferson County grand jury did not indict the deputy.
Lakewood police said Montana, 49, of Golden, shot Rossiter during a roadside confrontation at West Sixth Avenue and Indiana Street.
The altercation involving Rossiter and Michael Hunter, the driver of the pickup in which Rossiter was riding, may have begun with a cigarette butt tossed from the truck that landed on Montana’s vehicle.
A quick search has not turned up a lot of info on this but it seems that a fight started after the off-duty cop approached the victim’s truck on an off-ramp. Even if the cop was acting in a truly honest self defensive situation, which I doubt given he appears to have instigated the encounter, there should still be a case. Murder is not an appropriate response to a typical physical altercation. In the least a manslaughter or wrongful death civil case. If the grand jury declined to indict the deputy I doubt the department will do anything about it. I’d like to see their reasoning.
