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Officers, suspects involved in shooting near Dinosaur ID’d

Sky-Hi News Staff Report

A Colorado Parks & Wildlife Officer and a Moffat County Sheriff’s deputy were apparently briefly taken hostage by two suspects before one of the suspects was fatally shot during an incident near Dinosaur on US Highway 40 on Monday afternoon, March 9.

A prepared statement released by the 14th Judicial District on Tuesday evening says the officers were investigating a “suspicious vehicle off of the road near mile marker 10 on US Highway 40 east of Dinosaur when the officers encountered a male and female who, the evidence indicates, briefly took them hostage. A struggle ensued during which the male suspect was shot fatally. The female was taken into custody.”

On March 10, the female suspect, Georgie Hand, was booked into the Moffat County Jail on suspicion of committing two counts of Attempted First Degree Murder, two counts of Second Degree Kidnapping, two counts of Aggravated Robbery, two counts of Disarming a Peace Officer and two counts of Felony Menacing, according to a statement released by the district attorney’s office on Wednesday.



Hand was part of a shooting on March 9 involving Nathan Martinez, a Colorado Parks & Wildlife District Manager and Bhrent Shock, a Moffat County Sheriff’s Deputy, the second statement says. During the incident, the male suspect, James Brent Damon, was fatally shot according to the DA’s office.

Both officers have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.



A story in the March 5 Jackson County Star out of Walden indicates an alert had been issued to area law enforcement agencies in early March about the couple and the white Bronco they were driving. The alert said they were armed and dangerous and should be approached with extreme caution because they were thought to have stolen a gun during a recent robbery in Wyoming, the story says.

The story also says the couple was suspected in a Feb. 15 incident in North Park in which a Granby couple’s car was robbed while they were snowmobiling. The story says the couple reported $2,500 in cash missing along with credit cards and a Social Security card.

The incident is being investigated by the Critical Incident Team for the 14th Judicial District. Grand County is part of the district. Dinosaur is about 209 miles west of Granby on Highway 40.

At Hand’s first appearance on March 11 the Moffat County Court ordered her held without bond, according to the DA’s office.


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