Milliken Man in Officer-involved Shooting Gets 10 Years

Published on April 21, 2017

GREELEY, Colo. (Weld County D.A.) - A Milliken man at the center of an officer-involved shooting last May is going to prison nearly a year later.

Andrew “Joe” Gerold, now 29, was sentenced today to 10 years in the Department of Corrections after pleading guilty in January to two counts of felony menacing. He faced a maximum of 12 years in prison under the plea agreement.

The shooting happened on May 18, 2016 in the 700 block of South Saddleback Drive in Milliken. Officers received a 911 call from a family member that Gerold was “going berserk” with a gun and just shot his wife in the leg. Witnesses also said the defendant threatened to kill his wife and commit suicide.

By the time officers arrived, Gerold had barricaded himself and his wife in the basement and refused to surrender. He then fired a few more rounds before opening the basement door. That's when officers opened fire, striking Gerold in the left shoulder and left thigh. Both the defendant and victim have recovered from their gunshot wounds.

Gerold later told police he was drunk and high on cocaine and marijuana during the shooting and believed his wife was having an affair.

“The defendant terrorized his family that night,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Thea Carrasco as she argued for the maximum sentence. “The injustice that I see is the fact that he ever put his kids in the place to witness that. The safety of this community and those around him has been jeopardized by his consistent substance abuse and criminal behavior.”

Although no officers were shot during the incident, Evans Police Officer Josh Desmond, who responded to the situation, described how the shooting left him with a permanent injury.

“I'm 28-years-old, and I have to wear a hearing aid for the rest of my life because of his actions,” Desmond said during today's sentencing. “The defendant put us in a position that we never wanted to be in. I walked into the house that night to save lives, but I never wanted to be in a position where I had to shoot someone. The incident he created had a ripple effect that affected so many families.”

Following an investigation by the Critical Incident Response Team, District Attorney Michael Rourke cleared the involved officers in July 2016.

Gerold was taken into custody immediately after the sentencing.