On Monday morning, former La Salle police officer Erik Hernandez pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges as part of a plea deal. In May 2023, Officer Hernandez fired four shots at Juston Reffel while Reffel was driving away from Hernandez in his vehicle. Reffel was pronounced dead at the scene. It was Hernandez's third day on the job.
Hernandez faces up to “six years in Community Corrections or up to six years in the Colorado Department of Corrections, followed by two years of parole.” Alternatively, he may be sentenced with an unlimited length of probation with up to two years of incarceration.
On the day of Reffel’s death, officers Hernandez and Sam Johnson responded to a suspicious vehicle call at the Family Dollar. A white Dodge Magnum was illegally parked, had an obscured VIN number, and no records for the out-of-state plate. Johnson pulled the police car in front of the truck to block the vehicle from exiting and the two officers entered the store to look for the driver.
The driver, Reffel, exited the store via the emergency exit and set off the store's alarm system. He got into his vehicle while Hernandez stood next to the driver-side door and yelled at Reffel, asking him to exit the vehicle. Reffel backed up and began to drive away. That is when Hernandez fired four shots, causing Reffel's death.
The regulations for use of force by police officers in Colorado state that “an investigator should only discharge a firearm at a moving vehicle or its occupants when the investigator reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle, or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the investigator or others.”
There was no indication from the \ police body camera footage or the police report from the incident that Reffel posed an imminent harm to the officers or any community members. There was no knowledge of a violent act or possession of a weapon by Reffel.
George Brauchler, the former district attorney for the 18th judicial district in Colorado, said the case was a clear use of excessive force. “It’s not Hollywood, you don’t get to just shoot at people who are driving away from the cops, that's not how the law works,” he told FOX31. “You get to use deadly force when you’re a police officer if you have an objective reasonable belief that somebody poses an imminent… threat to the life and health of either the officer or somebody else.”
Hernandez was originally indicted on one charge of second-degree murder in June 2023. The trial concluded in November 2024 when a Weld County jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 25 at 3:30 p.m. in Division 16.
An incident near Delta, Colorado in 2021 led to the death of Paige Schmidt Pierce as she was fatally shot by an officer while driving her vehicle. The footage from that encounter showed there was a reasonable risk of harm for the officer who fired the shots because the car came within feet of hitting the officer and Schmidt-Pierce had space to maneuver around him. No charges were filed despite protests and the creation of a Facebook page called “Justice for Paige.”
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