By Ernest Luning | Denver Gazette
The four Republican members of Colorado’s congressional delegation are calling on Gov. Jared Polis to prevent a man convicted of killing a Denver police officer in 2005 from joining a program that could lead to his early release.
Polis’ office, however, said the governor has no role in the process and accused the GOP lawmakers of grandstanding around a “heinous crime.”
In a letter dated March 21 led by U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, a former state lawmaker and Arvada police officer, Evans and U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert, Jeff Crank and Jeff Hurd asked Polis to join them in urging the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections to reject an application by Raul Gomez-Garcia to participate in a program that allows certain inmates to later apply for early parole for crimes committed when they were under the age of 21.
Gomez-Garcia was 19 when he shot and killed Donald “Donnie” Young, a 12-year veteran of the Denver Police Department, on Mother’s Day weekend in 2005 after Young and his partner, fellow Denver police officer John “Jack” Bishop, ejected Gomez-Garcia from a baptismal party where they were providing security.