DENVER — The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office on Monday released a copy of the autopsy report for Johnny Hurley, hailed as a “Good Samaritan,” who was killed by police after he shot the suspect in the Olde Town Arvada shooting this summer.
The autopsy report determined that Hurley, 40, died from a single gunshot wound to the pelvis after he was mistaken for the active shooter, Ronald Troyke, by a responding Arvada police officer. His cause of death was ruled a homicide.
Troyke killed Arvada police Officer Gordon Beesley with a shotgun. The shootings all happened around 1:15 p.m. June 21 and left Beesley and both Hurley and Troyke dead.
John D. Carver, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, wrote in the report:
“The decedent was in a store on a commercial plaza, when Troyke fired a shotgun at parked motor vehicles and at a responding police officer (Beesley, Gordon, JCCO21-02616). The decedent exited the store with his own handgun, when Troyke was returning to his truck, to exchange the shotgun for an automatic rifle. The decedent approached Troyke and shot him several times. The decedent then removed Troyke’s assault rifle from his body. Another responding officer then saw the decedent holding the assault rifle, and fired his handgun at him, mistakenly assuming that the decedent was the active shooter. The decedent was subsequently transported to Lutheran Medical Center, where he was declared dead shortly after arrival.”
The investigation into the police shooting of Hurley is complete, the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced earlier this month.
District Attorney Alexis King and prosecutors from the office will review the investigation submitted by its Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) to determine if the officer will be criminally charged in the shooting. It’s not clear when King’s office will make a determination.
