On September 11, 2022, 27-year-old Arvada police officer and U.S. Air Force veteran Dillon Vakoff responded with a fellow officer to a large family disturbance on a residential street in Arvada, Colorado. The confrontation involved multiple people and arose from a custody dispute over children. While officers worked to de-escalate and separate those involved, a man identified as Sonny Almanza began firing a weapon. A woman at the scene was struck, and an exchange of gunfire followed between Almanza and the officers.

Officer Vakoff was fatally wounded and later died at a local hospital despite aid from colleagues and EMTs. Almanza was wounded, taken into custody at the scene, and later charged with first-degree murder of a peace officer and other offenses. Prosecutors said Almanza brought a high-powered rifle to what had been a fistfight; Almanza testified he believed he was being attacked and did not realize the shooters were police. A jury found Almanza guilty on all counts and he was sentenced to life without parole. Vakoff, a 2012 graduate of a local high school, served six years in the Air Force before joining the Arvada Police Department in 2019.

Did anyone in the neighborhood see or hear anything that night that might add detail to how the confrontation began?