Manuel Rocha, a maintenance worker, found himself in a terrifying situation during a five-hour standoff with Commerce City Police on Friday. Rocha was taken hostage by a 29-year-old man wanted for a domestic violence assault that had left a woman hospitalized earlier that day.
Rocha, who has lived and worked at the complex with his family for three years, was outside working when he saw a girl run out of the neighboring house, pursued by a man. Unaware of the situation’s gravity, Rocha did not recognize the man as the suspect or the girl as the domestic violence victim. The man approached Rocha, asking for help and showing blood on his chest. Believing the man needed assistance, Rocha followed him inside the house.
Once inside, Rocha’s nightmare began. The suspect locked the door, ordered Rocha to sit, and threatened him with a two-foot-long machete. “The guy told me, ‘I don’t care if you have a wife and kids, I don’t care, I’m going to kill you,'” Rocha recounted. “I thought, probably, I’m going to die today.”
The suspect ordered Rocha to check outside for police presence. Seizing the opportunity, Rocha left the screen door open and the main door unlocked, hoping for a chance to escape. Meanwhile, SWAT teams and Commerce City police surrounded the house.
After an agonizing hour and a half, Rocha saw his chance when the suspect’s back was turned and made a run for it. The suspect chased after him, but two officers, guns drawn, were waiting outside. “He saw the cops right there and went back inside and locked the door,” Rocha said. Rocha ran straight to his family, who were anxiously waiting. “My wife was crying, she hugged me, she was saying, ‘Where were you, where were you.’ And I said, ‘I was with the crazy guy, he was trying to kill me.'”
During the standoff, police issued a shelter-in-place order for a three-block radius as the suspect made additional threats, including killing police officers and igniting a bomb. Rocha escaped with only a minor slash on his arm but was deeply shaken. He considers himself lucky to have survived.
Authorities eventually deployed a robot into the suspect’s home, releasing fumes that drove him outside. SWAT team members, stationed on multiple rooftops and in a nearby tree, were ready. At approximately 7 p.m., the suspect was shot as he stepped outside the back door. Police had been negotiating with the suspect via a phone they provided him, but he refused to surrender peacefully. “It’s always tragic when it ends this way,” said Joanna Small, a spokesperson for Commerce City Police. “It’s not what we want either, but we are absolutely going to do everything in our power to make sure the people who trust us with their safety are safe. And this was terrifying for this neighborhood.”
Neighbors who had taken videos of the alleged domestic violence had tipped off police, suggesting the situation had been ongoing for days. The suspect’s identity will be released by the Adams County Coroner’s Office. The 17th Judicial District’s Critical Incident Response Team is investigating the shooting, and two officers have been placed on administrative leave.
