LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Bond was set at $2 million on Tuesday for Gordon Moench Jr., the man arrested in connection with the shooting two Lakewood police officers on Saturday night.
A previous report that Moench had been charged in connection with the shooting was incorrect. The District Attorney’s Office has until July 14 to decide whether to file charges against Moench.
In an arrest affidavit notes that Moench, 54, allegedly made a 911 call reporting “a guy out front with a gun is ready to kill a bunch of people,” then added “I’m the guy with the gun.” The affidavit says he was lying in wait with three guns in his pickup truck outside his home.
He later made another 911 call, according to the affidavit, and said, “God I apologize, I hit that cop and now it’s too far. … They’re going to have to kill me.”
After Moench allegedly shot two of the officers, a third officer shot him in the chest near West Jewell Avenue and South Kipling Street shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday.
Moench appeared in a video court appearance before a Jefferson County judge, sitting in a wheelchair. He faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault on a police officer and felony menacing involving a weapon.
Moench’s stepson says his stepfather was not doing well and might have wanted a way out.
“We didn’t even get two minutes into the door and Gordon is going crazy,” said Peyton Jackson, the stepson’s friend. “Yelling at us. It escalated. Just kept on going how he didn’t do his chores.”
Jackson says they left but minutes later, police say a woman, who was not inside the home, called police asking officers to check on her husband. She said he threatened violence if officers showed up.
“It sounds to me that these shots — that the suspect fired almost immediately upon the arrival of these two officers,” said Steve Davis of the Lakewood Police Department.