The Local newsletter is your free, daily guide to life in Colorado. For locals, by locals. Sign up today! Johnny Hurley often thought about what he would do if he heard gunshots. He discussed it with his friends, his sister, and his partner. By summer , the longtime chef had spent nearly a year training for the possibilityโworking with former military personnel, learning the intricacies of his Springfield Hellcat handgun.
The year-old carried a gun with him nearly everywhere he went. At some point, he was certain, his time for action would come. On June 21, , shotgun blasts echoed through Olde Town Arvada around p. Friends took lunch together on patios; co-workers met over coffees near the town square; and children played in the water fountains.
Now, the afternoon had given way to chaos. People ran, ducked under bistro tables, and dove for cover behind parked vehicles. The assailantโa heavyset man in a black T-shirt, black shorts, a black fisherman-style bucket hat, and a black face maskโturned away from the lifeless body of Officer Gordon Beesley, then fired again, this time shattering the rear window of a parked police SUV. The man casually walked away, through a nearby parking lot to where an AR semi-automatic rifle was resting inside his Ford F Officer Kraig Brownlow and two colleagues from the Arvada Police Department heard the shots from inside a one-story, unmarked police building about 30 yards from where the downed officer lay.
The officers rushed to look out a window in a metal door at the back of the building. They saw a man in a black T-shirt and bucket hat holding a weapon as he walked through the parking lot. Johnny Hurley heard the gunshots, too. Hurley had been shopping for new work boots and wanted to purchase a fishing license, but now he was looking out the storefront window and saw the assailant walking away.
He pulled his Hellcat out of its holster, dashed toward the town square, and crouched behind a brick wall. Hurley peered around the barrier and saw the man in black walking toward him, through the parking lot.
