A 37-year-old man who was fired Monday from the Aurora Police Department now faces charges of assault and child abuse in a Westminster domestic violence incident, according to court records.
Philip Lawrence Sullivan was charged in Adams County with eight misdemeanors, including third-degree assault, two counts of knowing and reckless child abuse, harassment, resisting arrest and multiple weapons charges.
Westminster police officers responded to the domestic violence incident involving weapons in the 9000 block of Osceola Street just before 7 p.m. on Nov. 26, according to court documents.
The caller told dispatchers that her husband, Sullivan, had shoved her in the bathroom and thrown items at her, according to the man’s arrest affidavit. While inside a barricaded bedroom, she told them Sullivan was throwing things around and was possibly armed.
Police said an argument started after Sullivan brought his wife dinner upstairs and she said she wasn’t hungry. This escalated into a fight where he grabbed the bowl of food and tossed it at his wife, striking her in the chest, according to the affidavit.
The wife told police that she threw the bowl back and Sullivan “became enraged,” pushing her onto the bed. The wife yelled at the three children inside the home to hide themselves in the only bedroom with a lock, retreated to a nearby bathroom and locked herself inside, police wrote in the affidavit.
Sullivan broke through the bathroom door and shoved his wife into the bathtub, injuring her back, the document stated. She was able to grab a towel rod that had broken in the struggle, use it to defend herself and push past Sullivan to reunite with the children in the locked bedroom.
The man tried to break into the bedroom but couldn’t, she told police. From within the room, the wife heard him racking the gun and said she knew Sullivan had armed himself. She told the children to hide behind the mattress.
Once Westminster officers arrived, the wife and three children were able to safely leave the home, police wrote in the affidavit.
Officers surrounded the house, identified themselves as police and ordered Sullivan to exit with his hands raised, police said. Sullivan responded by telling officers to “(expletive) leave” and threatened to kill himself if officers entered the home.
Sullivan briefly pointed his handgun down the house’s stairs at officers, police said.
During the standoff, the wife told police that Sullivan had never hurt her before and that she had noticed his mental health deteriorating, which she believed was related to a difficult case he was working on at the Aurora Police Department.
She said Sullivan had been taking his frustration and anger out on her and the children, and had started drinking more, according to the document.
On the day of the arrest, Sullivan had been drinking almost continuously since 10 a.m., about 9 hours, police said in the affidavit.
Sullivan surrendered to police after more than 3 hours of negotiations and was arrested.
Aurora police chief Todd Chamberlain called the incident “extremely troubling” and said Sullivan’s behavior ran “counter to the values of the Aurora Police Department” when announcing the man’s termination on Monday.
Sullivan posted bail on Nov. 28 and is next scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 23 for a pretrial conference, according to court records.
Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.