Cop slain with his own gun in Weld County

GREELEY – Police investigators are trying to determine how a gang member was able to take a weapon from a Weld County Sheriff’s deputy and fatally shoot him at an Evans subdivision Tuesday morning.

Deputy Sam Brownlee, 43, was shot once in the face and twice in the chest by Rueben Reyes, 20, who was chased by police across two counties before being stopped in the Cave Creek subdivision. Reyes was shot and killed by an Evans police officer.

“All we can do at this point is speculate,” said Weld County Sheriff John Cooke Wednesday.

“For most of us, this is something completely surreal,” Cooke said. “It just simply hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Brownlee was shot after a vehicle chase that at one point reached 107 mph.

Reyes allegedly stole a car in Fort Morgan after reportedly being involved in a domestic dispute. Morgan County sheriff’s deputies and police from Wiggins chased after the stolen car. Weld County deputies and state troopers took over the chase at the county line and were eventually joined Evans police officers.

Reyes was first reported to be an armed robbery suspect, Cooke said. However, Cooke said, officers determined that Reyes did not have a gun in the car when he was stopped in the subdivision.

Officers at the scene, including Brownlee, pulled Reyes out of the car and they started wrestling on the pavement, Cooke said. The officers also tried to Tazer the suspect, but the Tazer prongs did not stick in Reyes, Cooke said.

Reyes was able to get Brownlee’s weapon and shot him, twice in the chest and once in the head, the sheriff said.

The Evans officer then shot Reyes, Cooke said. Both Reyes and Brownlee were taken to North Colorado Medical Center where they both died.

The shooting is under investigation by the Greeley Police Department. Investigators will be looking to see if Brownlee’s weapon was properly holstered, Cooke said.

Brownlee was also a Tazer instructor and on the sheriff’s department firearms team.

Before he became a deputy, he served with the Ault Police Department. He is survived by his wife, two children and two step-children.

Brownlee worked for several years at Rocky Mountain Supplies and was good friends with the owner’s son, Eddie Rutt.

“All he talked about was being in law enforcement,” said Rutt. “He volunteered with the police, went on ride-alongs, it was just his life-long dream to be a cop.”

“If you wanted anything, anything at all, Sam was there for you,” Cooke said. “He was a good man and a good officer.”

Reyes, who identified himself to Morgan County deputies as a member of the Sureño gang during a June 2009 arrest, was arrested in March 2009 for beating a 50-year-old man so severely after a traffic accident that the man’s leg was broken, the arrest reports say.

He was the father of a daughter born in June in Fort Morgan.

Earlier in the day, the Reyes family sent their condolences to Brownlee’s family. The Reyes’s also reportedly described Reuben as a “troubled teen.”

Cooke brushed aside that explanation for the shooting. “I still see him as a monster, because he killed one of our officers,” Cooke said. “In my mind, that’s exactly what he is.”

A memorial for Brownlee is scheduled for Monday at the Butler-Hancock auditorium on the University of Northern Colorado campus.