Dec 19, 2007 8:22 pm US/Mountain
Deputy In Fatal Shooting Feared For Life
By Dan Elliott, AP Writer
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) ―
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David Rossiter on Nov. 4, 2007.
CBS
An off-duty sheriff's deputy who shot and killed a man during a roadside altercation told investigators he was being beaten so badly he feared for his life.
"The only reason I shot him was because they were beating the (expletive) out of me," Arapahoe County Deputy Daniel Montana told police in an investigative report released Wednesday.
The report said Montana told himself before drawing his gun, "These guys are trying to kill me."
Authorities said Montana, 49, killed David Rossiter, 25, on Nov. 2 on a freeway exit ramp in the west Denver suburb of Lakewood. A grand jury declined to indict Montana but did not say why.
Rossiter lived in Sheridan, Mont., and had a construction job in the Denver area. An attorney for his family, Stephanie Kruer, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Montana told Lakewood police he got into a fight with two men, later identified as Rossiter and one of Rossiter's co-workers, Michael D. Hunter II, after Hunter flicked a cigarette out of a pickup that landed on Montana's car. Both vehicles were stopped at a light.
A fight broke out after Montana got out of his vehicle to get rid of the cigarette. Hunter told investigators that Montana yelled at him, but Montana denied that.
Montana told investigators Rossiter and Hunter punched and kicked him 30 times, knocking him to the ground three times. Montana said he nearly lost consciousness.
Hunter backed off when Montana drew his gun and identified himself as a deputy, Montana told investigators, but he said Rossiter charged him, ignoring warnings to stop.
"Montana said he felt he could not 'go round two,"' the report said, and fired two shots.
The coroner said Rossiter was hit in the hip and chest.
A witness who told investigators he was stopped directly behind Montana's car said he saw two mean severely beating a third man. The witness said one of the two men made a "pretty quick lunge" toward the third before the third man fired two shots.
Investigators said Montana's face was bruised, swollen and bleeding and that he had a black eye after the fight.
None of the nearly 250 pages of documents released Wednesday were from the grand jury proceedings, which are secret under Colorado law.
Kruer, the Rossiter family's attorney, said earlier the family was "sadly disappointed" the grand jury did not indict Montana and that the family plans to file suit.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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