The Denver City Council approved a $365,000 settlement against the Denver Police Department Monday after police killed one man and injured another in 2018 while mistakenly pursuing who they thought was an escaped jail inmate.

The settlement was approved unanimously without comment from council members. The $365,000 will go to the victims’ families, with payments to be delegated to Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, Bryan and Terrill Law PLLC and Denver Probate Court.

The fatal incident happened on March 19, 2018. According to police reports, officers were staking out a house in Aurora looking for escaped inmate Mauricio Venzor-Gonzalez when they saw two men leave the home and drive away in an SUV.

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Officers with the Aurora and Denver police departments chased the SUV, but the driver would not pull over.

Two Denver officers, Susan Mercado and Austin Barela, shot at the moving vehicle, saying they believed Venzor-Gonzalez was inside and the occupants were rummaging around for a weapon. The SUV then crashed in an embankment, where officers shot at it again, now including Officer William Bohm.

Both of the vehicle’s occupants, 27-year-old Steven Nguyen and then-23-year-old Rafael Landeros Jr., were shot by the officers. The men were taken to a hospital where Nguyen later died of his injuries.

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Venzor-Gonzalez was not in the vehicle and, though there was a loaded handgun in the SUV, it was never fired. Nguyen and Landeros had warrants out for their arrests and were driving a stolen vehicle, which is why they fled from police, Landeros later told police.

All three officers were cleared of wrongdoing in October 2018, with the district attorney saying they reasonably feared for their lives because Venzor-Gonzalez was considered armed and dangerous. In March 2020, Mercado and Barela were found to have violated department policy by firing at a moving vehicle. They served 90 days of unpaid suspension.

Venzor-Gonzalez, who had escaped custody after being arrested for attempted murder, was again arrested five months after the incident and sentenced to 36 years in prison for escape and attempted murder, according to court records. 

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