Corporal Tye Simcox (Photo via Colorado State Patrol)
Investigators on Tuesday publicly identified the gunman who shot a Colorado State Patrol trooper parked along U.S. 36 over the weekend as a 32-year-old Thornton man.
Victor Anthony De Santiago shot and injured Cpl. Tye Simcox around 1:18 p.m. Saturday before he was killed in a shootout with the trooper, investigators said.
“The deceased is a citizen of the United States born in California and a long-term resident of Colorado with an extensive Colorado criminal history, beginning as a juvenile,” Colorado State Patrol officials said in a Tuesday news release.
The Adams County Coroner’s Office identified De Santiago as the shooter Tuesday and said an autopsy had been conducted, but did not release the cause and manner of his death.
According to the Colorado State Patrol, Simcox was doing paperwork while parked in his marked Ford 150 pickup truck between two concrete barriers in the center median of U.S. 36, just west of Federal Boulevard in Westminster, when De Santiago opened fire while driving past.
De Santiago was driving a black Chevrolet pickup truck eastbound on the highway and slowed as he passed the marked state patrol truck, pulling out a handgun and firing multiple shots into the truck, officials said.
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After shooting Simcox, the 32-year-old pulled over, got out of his vehicle and was killed by the wounded trooper in a shootout along the turnpike’s center median.
Simcox was shot once in the arm and was able to apply a tourniquet to the limb as he waited for backup from responding Colorado State Patrol troopers and Westminster police officers. He was taken to Denver Health, where he was treated and released that afternoon.
The shooting is still under investigation as investigators look into a possible motive and interview Simcox.
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