Man accused of killing Sheri ’s K-9 to enter plea Sept. 5

days before.

BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e Lakewood man who reportedly killed a Je erson County Sheri K-9 and pointed a gun at a Golden police o cer has had his arraignment continued again.

Eduardo Romero, 29, is now scheduled to enter a plea at 2 p.m. Sept. 5 at the Je erson County Courthouse. He was arrested Feb. 13 for reportedly eeing police near the Colorado School of Mines campus and shooting K-9 Gra t, who was trying to apprehend him.

e District Attorney’s O ce has led eight charges against Romero, including felony charges of aggravated cruelty to animals, identity theft, motor vehicle theft and menacing. His initial bond was set at $300,000 cash only.

Romero attended his Aug. 7 court appearance virtually from the Jeffco jail, where his defense attorney asked Judge Jason Carrithers for a continuance to consider a plea agreement he’d received only a few

Romero’s defense attorney said the agreement included “six gures of restitution, and he and Romero needed time to discuss it. us, he asked for and Carrithers granted setting the “ nal arraignment” date for Sept. 5.

“I’m glad to hear we’re nearing a resolution (in this case),” Carrithers said.

The Feb. 13 incident e GPD o cer broke the driver’s side window to grab ahold of Romero, but he slipped free and ran eastbound on 19th Street. e o cer chased him until Romero reportedly pointed a gun toward the o cer, who dove out of the way. e Jeep he’d been driving was also listed as stolen.

As described at the May 9 preliminary hearing, around 12:15 a.m. Feb. 13, a Mines campus o cer and GPD o cer contacted a white Jeep blocking the roadway near the campus.

Romero, the vehicle’s only occupant, was slumped over the steering wheel with his foot on the brake. He later told o cers he’d been drinking and smoking marijuana during a Super Bowl party in Denver.

Romero woke up enough to start driving the Jeep less than 10 mph westbound on 19th Street, across the U.S. Highway 6 overpass. e two o cers followed and “pinched” the Jeep in to prevent it from moving again. Romero then started ramming the Jeep into the patrol cars.

Meanwhile, Romero ran into heavy shrubbery on the northeast side of U.S. 6. Local agencies to set up a perimeter, and Deputy Zachary Oliver released K-9 Gra t into the brush to apprehend Romero.

Romero later told detectives that he recognized a “cop dog” was coming toward him. He said the dog didn’t bite him, and he denied pointing his handgun at the dog but “heard the gun re a round.” He assumed he shot the ground.

After hiding from police, Romero turned himself in around 5 a.m. Feb. 13. Once he was in custody, investigators found he’d used a stolen passport to buy a hotel room.

A necropsy con rmed K-9 Gra t died from bullets matching Romero’s gun, Golden Police detectives stated at the May 9 preliminary hearing.

Gra t, who’d been with JCSO since 2015, died at the scene Feb. 13.

Oliver, his handler, has memorialized Gra t as a K-9 who never backed down from a task. He was also a very social dog who loved attention at home and at work.

“He was my partner, my best friend, and most of all, my family,” Oliver said at Gra t’s memorial service Feb. 27. “ ... He gave his life that day. He took a bullet that wasn’t meant for him.”

In the wake of Gra t’s death, community members from Je erson County and beyond donated money and supplies toward the Sheri ’s K-9 unit. Oliver and another deputy have new K-9 partners, who will be in training until September.

Additionally, Oliver and others worked with state legislators to increase penalties for those convicted of aggravated cruelty to animals.