DENVER (AP) — Two police officers involved in the arrest of a woman who was seriously injured when her parked police car ran out of control hit by a freight train Billed on Monday.
Prosecutors also announced that a woman named Yareni Rios Gonzalez, who was arrested on suspicion of a road rage incident involving the use of a gun prior to the crash, was also charged with a felony.
The Weld County District Attorney’s Office announced the charges in a statement. It provided basic court documents describing the charges against it, but said it would not provide further details because of “pending litigation.” The documents did not contain a description of the officers’ actions leading up to the Sept. 16 crash.
Rios Gonzalez’s attorney, Paul Wilkinson, said he plans to file a lawsuit over the crash, but did not immediately call for comment.
Of the two officers, Fort Lupton Officer Jordan Steinkey faces the most serious charges of both attempted manslaughter and second-degree assault. No attorney was listed on behalf of the agency, and her contact information was not listed on the ministry’s website.
Pablo Vazquez, a sergeant in the nearby city of Prattville, was identified as the arresting officer on body camera footage. Related violations, including parking where prohibited.
Phone messages and emails sent to Vasquez at work were not immediately returned. Online court records do not yet list a lawyer to represent him.
After the crash, Vazquez told other officers: body camera video When he parked a police car behind Rios Gonzalez’s truck to arrest her, he thought he had cleared the truck. He said he was worried about her weapon, so he focused on her. He also said he did not know that another police officer (unidentified) from another department he worked with had put Rios Gonzalez in his patrol car until the train crashed into it. The saving grace ‘is that other officers placed Rios-Gonzalez on the side of a vehicle not normally used for those arrested.
Another video from Vazquez’s body camera shows him and another officer searching Rios Gonzalez’s truck as an approaching train honks. Amidst the rumbling of the train, Vazquez asked another officer several times if Rios Gonzalez was in the patrol car, and she answered with a hand over her face.
Another police video shows officers rushing as a train approaches and crashes into a car.