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Edgemont shooting explained further

Deputies say 3 safety checks made with disgruntled neighbor

The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office said it did three safety checks of a resident whose condo was penetrated by a bullet a deputy shot during an incident July 11 in Edgemont Ranch.

Deputies first made contact with Bud Andersen, the Edgemont Ranch resident who complained about the Sheriff’s Office’s failure to check on his daughter’s and his safety, in the middle of an early-morning standoff with Andersen’s suicidal neighbor, Andrew Gregory Baros, said La Plata County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Dan Bender in a news release.

When Andersen came out of his condo during the early-morning standoff, he was unaware that a bullet fired by a deputy at Baros had entered his home. According to Bender, deputies repeatedly ordered Andersen to go back inside his house, and deputies considered this a first check on Andersen’s safety.

Andersen said last week that deputies took two hours before checking to see if he and his 6-year-old daughter were OK after the standoff. But on Wednesday, Bender said deputies on the scene knew during the standoff that Andersen was safe.

Andersen was upset with deputies for the lag time in realizing the bullet had pierced the wall of his condo and landed in his kitchen.

A 911 call from Baros came in shortly before 1 a.m. July 11, and deputies responded. Five deputies arrived at the Edgemont subdivision in the Silver Queen area at 1:12 a.m. to subdue Baros, who was suicidal and armed with an AR-15 and a shotgun and was threatening deputies, according to the news release. About 50 minutes later, Deputy Zachary Farnam fired a shot at Baros but did not hit him. The bullet, the only one fired during the standoff, entered Andersen’s condo.

While deputies were dealing with Baros, Andersen said he called 911 to alert dispatch that he had heard a gunshot in his neighborhood. Shortly after the shot was fired, Andersen stepped out of his condo to see what was happening. His encounter with deputies at this time was considered by deputies their first safety check.

“At that point, I could have been a neighbor upstairs asking about what was going on,” Andersen said.

Deputies say they were unaware the bullet went into Andersen’s home.

“They thought the bullet was lodged in the exterior wall,” Bender said.

Andersen said if deputies knew Baros was standing in front of his condo and the bullet didn’t hit Baros, it would be easy to find where the bullet went, and that’s when they should have made him aware.

Andersen said last week deputies didn’t check on him and his daughter until about 4 a.m. Bender said it was sooner than that.

After Baros surrendered about 2:38 a.m., Bender said within five minutes, deputies checked on other units in the complex, including Andersen’s, to make sure he was safe.

Andersen told deputies he and his daughter were fine, so they moved on with other crime-scene duties, Bender said.

When investigators were processing the scene outside Andersen’s condo about sunrise, they discovered that the bullet had actually pierced his condo, Bender said. That’s when Bender said deputies contacted Andersen a third time.

tferraro@durangoherald.com



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