Former LaSalle police officer sentenced to 6 years in prison for fatal on-duty shooting

A former LaSalle police officer who fatally shot a man outside a Family Dollar store while on duty was sentenced to six years in prison on Friday Erik Gustavo Hernandez pleaded guilty to manslaughter in January court records show Related Articles Pueblo officer teen suspect injured in early morning shootout One wounded in alleged shootout with Craig police More people died in police chases in this Denver suburb than in the state s biggest cities Former Clear Creek County sheriff s deputy sentenced to years in prison for killing Christian Glass Thornton officers avoid charges in fatal Lakewood shooting but DA questions their decisions Hernandez was indicted by a grand jury on one count of second-degree murder but a Weld County jury couldn t reach a verdict after his trial in November The shooting happened on May when Hernandez and another officer were studying a suspicious van parked outside the Family Dollar at S Second St in LaSalle The van s owner Juston Reffel ran out of the store to his car and started to drive away and Hernandez fired four shots at Reffel hitting him in the torso according to court records The -year-old later died at the hospital There s nothing more serious than the loss of human life Deputy District Attorney Lacy Wells commented in a report There s one benefit here though and it s that this individual will never be a police officer again Juston deserved better and so did the citizens of Weld County An attorney for Hernandez did not straightaway respond to a request for comment Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day