A former police officer from Colorado who shot and killed a man just across the border in Utah in 2018 pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor on Monday.
Former Montezuma County Sheriff’s Sergeant Edward Oxley fatally shot a man who had fired at him during a February 2018 car chase that led from Colorado into the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation.
He was the only officer charged last year in connection with a police shooting in Utah.
Utah authorities found the fatal shooting of Fordell Hill, 26, justified. But Sheriff Steve Nowlin fired Oxley for firing his weapon during the car chase, and Oxley was charged in Colorado with two felony counts of illegal discharge of a firearm.
Oxley struck a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to plead guilty Monday to one misdemeanor count of official misconduct, which related only to ammunition that he used in his department-issued assault rifle. The ammunition had not been approved by the sheriff’s office; Oxley told investigators with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation that he had kept the ammunition from his previous job with the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.
He is not required to serve any jail time, and the plea deal could potentially allow him to continue working in law enforcement.
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