SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. -- A grieving mother said she turned her son into Denver police in hopes of getting him off the streets, instead, she's making funeral arrangements. 20-year-old Michael Ferguson was killed during an officer-involved shooting on Wednesday, August 31.
His mother, Tobi Ferguson, knew her son had open warrants and she said she was trying to do the right thing when she called police on him.
"My son was in trouble a little bit, I'm not defending my son in any way. We were trying to help him and bring him in safely," said Ferguson.
Police responded to a home in the 2600 block of West Bates looking for her son. Ferguson knew he was heading to her best friend's house in a stolen truck. She said he took the truck from her work and had until 5:00 p.m. that day to return it.
When officers arrived at the house, Michael jumped out of a back window and tried to run away. According to police, there was an altercation in the middle of the road. During the incident, police said the suspect reached for one of the responding officer's guns, leading police to shoot the man after a brief struggle.
"I let them know that he was unarmed, I let them know that he was scared, I let them know that he would try to run," said Ferguson.
His family tied white flags to construction trucks in Summit County over the holiday weekend. Michael's mom works for a construction company and wanted to do something to honor her son. The flags had messages with a host of messages, similar to, "Mikey, we love you."
A spokesperson for the Denver Police Department could not comment specifically on the case because it's an ongoing investigation. He went on to say, "The bottom line is there's not a police officer in this city or across the country that puts on this uniform and hopes to use deadly force, it's an unfortunate situation."
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