It turns out the threesome arrested after a high-speed car chase that led to the tragic death of Fountain police Officer Julian Becerra had extensive criminal records and were wanted on other charges at the time of the Feb. 2 incident.

Sadly, it comes as no surprise. Not amid Colorado’s unprecedented crime wave – aided and abetted by a legislature that has spent the last several years watering down criminal penalties, decriminalizing drugs and coddling repeat offenders.

As The Gazette reported this week, arrest affidavits reveal the suspects – who were eluding police in a vehicle believed stolen – had a history of car theft, robbery, illegal drug possession and other crimes. There were outstanding arrest warrants for two of the suspects.

The alleged wheel man in the chase already was facing warrants for charges including motor vehicle theft and felony criminal mischief. In December, he walked away from a halfway house where he was confined after serving only six months of an 18-month prison sentence for possession of a weapon by a previous offender. He also had logged a lengthy prison record before that for drug and robbery charges.

An alleged accomplice was wanted on two misdemeanor cases of violating probation and another case involving stalking, menacing and harassment. 

Of course, advocates of “justice reform” in the legislature will tell you auto theft isn’t really a violent crime – not much of a crime at all, in fact. Which could explain why they passed a law in 2021 lowering the penalty to a mere misdemeanor for stealing a vehicle valued under $2,000. Apparently, Colorado motorists of modest means are expendable in the legislature’s crusade to go easy on career criminals.

Yet, auto theft seems to accompany a whole lot of other, serious crimes, and these suspects’ records reflect it. And sometimes, auto theft itself can be as violent as any other crime, as Officer Becerra’s grieving survivors could attest. After the suspects had crashed their vehicle during the chase and attempted to flee on foot, Becerra pursued them and fell 40 feet from a bridge. He died from his injuries two days later.

His was the latest life lost among law enforcement in their quest to protect the public.

In September, Arvada police Officer Dillon Vakoff was shot to death after responding to a disturbance in an Arvada residential area. In August, Andrew Peery, a SWAT officer with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, was shot and killed responding to a reported shooting south of Colorado Springs. Arvada Police Officer Gordon Beesley was killed while responding to a shooter in the city’s Olde Town in June 2021. And of course Boulder Police officer Eric Talley was among the 10 shot and killed at a King Soopers store in the city in March 2021.

The list goes on. Last May, members of law enforcement and others gathered at the Colorado Law Enforcement Memorial in Golden to recognize 17 fallen law officers. Nine had been killed in the line of duty in 2021 alone.

Police work is the most hazardous, and deadly, outside of combat. Time and again, Colorado’s law officers are there for us – to serve us, to protect us and, too often, to die for us.

The least we can do in return is put more hardened criminals behind bars and keep them their longer – for the sake of our law officers as well as the rest us.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board