Deputy was within a split second of dying during standoff

CASTLE ROCK · A sniper twice came within a split second of shooting El Paso County sheriff's detective Jerald Day during a tense standoff with law enforcement near Franktown.

But each time Day - who had been waving a handgun toward Douglas County officers and pointed it toward his mouth and at a police dog - lowered the weapon. And each time the sheriff's deputy with a rifle trained on the detective removed his finger from the trigger.

Just how close the 42-year-old deputy came to being shot during the Feb. 28 incident in an animal hospital parking lot emerged in testimony Thursday during his preliminary hearing in Douglas County Court.

At the end of the hearing, Douglas County Judge Susanna Meissner-Cutler ordered that Day, a 12-year sheriff's veteran who has been suspended with pay since his arrest, stand trial on charges of menacing and vehicular eluding. She also reduced his bond from $300,000 to $150,000.

She also ordered that he undergo a mental health evaluation, not drink alcohol and stay away from an ex-girlfriend and the detective who was his partner.

She did so after hearing from his mother, Juanita Day, who described him as a loving son who can live with his parents if he is released on bond. Eight other relatives were also in the courtroom.

Defense lawyer Oliver Johnson argued that using bond as a way to keep his client locked up was unconstitutional. He asked the judge to reduce bond to $10,000.

Asked later if the family would be able to bond Day out, Johnson said he was unsure.

"He has a lot of family and a lot of support," Johnson said.

If he does bond out, it will be against the advice of his partner Detective Cliff Porter, who wrote to Douglas County prosecutors citing his concerns if Day is released on bond.

"The night of the incident, I had been on the phone with Jerry for hours trying to talk him out of his destructive path," Porter wrote in an e-mail to prosecutor Bryan Garrett. "Clearly I was unsuccessful."

Porter said he wishes the best for Day and hopes his partner can get counseling and heal. But then he added:
"If Jerry's attitude is in any way vindictive, I would recommend not reducing bond until we can be assured that he is not a danger to himself or to others."

It was Porter who first alerted authorities that night, Garrett said. He said his partner had been talking about various scenarios, including one in which he would force police officers to kill him.

If that was his plan, he nearly succeeded.

Douglas County deputies described how they tried to pull Day over at the intersection of state highways 83 and 86 about 10:30 p.m. that night. They disabled the Toyota pickup he was driving with a stop strip that flattened one of the front tires.

Twice Day got out of the pickup and staggered toward them, they said. He had been drinking from a bottle. All the while, deputies repeatedly ordered him to drop the gun.

Deputy Chris O'Neal watched Day through the scope of a rifle. Twice he prepared to fire a shot as Day raised the gun toward other officers, only to lower it again.

Lt. Dan McMillan testified that he fired two non-lethal sponge rounds at Day, to little effect.

The incident ended when a K-9 officer unleashed Axel, a police dog, who grabbed hold of Day's arm.