Strangulation History Identified as Major Red Flag in Lakewood Police Shootout

Strangulation is a critical red flag that the criminal justice system frequently overlooks, according to experts reviewing the violent history of a man involved in a deadly shootout with law enforcement.

The Denver Post reported that an Adams County sheriff’s deputy was assaulted by Gabriel Garcia in the dead of night nearly ten years prior to the Thursday shootout that claimed the lives of Garcia and a Lakewood police officer. The Thursday shootout resulted in the death of Agent Nicholas Graham and Garcia, while leaving three other Lakewood officers shot and a bystander wounded.

During the August 2017 incident, a deputy stopped Garcia and his girlfriend in a neighborhood near Westminster while investigating a trespassing call. Court records and an affidavit detail that Garcia ran from the deputy, fought him when caught, punched him in the face, bit his arm, pushed a knee into his back, strangled him, and grabbed for the deputy’s holstered gun.

Experts point to the strangulation—when Garcia squeezed the deputy’s neck and cut off his ability to breathe—as a major risk factor. This specific violent act appears in the histories of many individuals who later kill police officers, experts told The Denver Post. They argue that law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges should incorporate past strangulation incidents into threat assessments during arrests, bond hearings, and sentencing deliberations.

“We are always told, as police officers, that domestic violence calls are the most dangerous and that really isn’t true. It is the suspect that is the most dangerous. And you can encounter a strangler on a shoplifting call, on a traffic stop, on an eviction notice.”

— Bill Smock, a police surgeon for the Jeffersontown Police Department in Kentucky and an expert on strangulation

The woman who was with Garcia during the 2017 incident told investigators that Garcia not only strangled the Adams County Sheriff’s deputy, but also strangled her, according to the arrest affidavit. She said that Garcia used methamphetamine that night and that his behavior changes when he uses the drug.

While strangulation occurs most frequently in domestic violence situations, a large share of police officer killings involve men with a history of domestic violence, according to Gerry Fineman, a former California prosecutor now living in Colorado Springs who chairs a committee for the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention.

Fineman reviewed 10 police officer killings in Riverside County, California, between 1993 and 2013 and found that half of the suspects had previously faced accusations of strangling someone.

Explaining criminal history of suspect in fatal Lakewood Police shootout — 9NEWS

In a separate review of 10 non-fatal police shootings by an Idaho police department, 30% of suspects had histories of strangulation, and 80% had a history of domestic violence. A review of 44 police killings found that 75% of suspects had a history of domestic violence, as detailed in a 2022 report in Police Chief Magazine.

“You have individuals who are willing to hold someone’s life in their hands, literally,” Fineman said. “And they’re just as willing to take the life of anyone else. That is why we say stranglers are the most dangerous men on the planet.”

— Gerry Fineman, a former California prosecutor now living in Colorado Springs

Fineman and Smock argue that states should better track strangulation so officers receive warnings when pulling someone over or checking warrants. Such information could alter tactical approaches during routine stops and enhance officer safety.

When Graham and other Lakewood law enforcement personnel intercepted Garcia around 6:30 p.m. Thursday following his boarding of a bus at West Colfax Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard, the extent of their prior knowledge regarding him remained undetermined.

Officers recognized Garcia as matching the description of a suspect in a hit-and-run crash earlier that day, but police spokesman John Romero did not answer questions about whether officers knew Garcia’s name or his violent past.

Following Garcia onto the Regional Transportation District bus placed officers in a precarious environment with limited cover, according to James Allbee, a former police officer and use of force expert. The tight space creates a “fatal funnel” where movement is restricted, concealment is challenging, and the presence of the general public raises friendly-fire concerns.

Garcia had a lengthy criminal history in Colorado and had been out of prison for just weeks when the Thursday confrontation occurred. He pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer for the 2017 attack and received a 10-year prison sentence in 2019 after prosecutors dropped an attempted murder charge and related counts as part of a plea agreement.

Although the Colorado Department of Corrections did not provide records detailing his exact release date from that 10-year sentence, court records show he was freed by July 2025, when he was arrested for forgery.

He was arrested again in October 2025 for trespassing, sentenced in April to a year in prison with credit for about five months served while awaiting trial, and then released on parole on Sept. 23 following reductions for earned time.

Garcia was arrested again on Sept. 28 after police in Broomfield located a truck involved in a hit-and-run crash where Garcia was a passenger. Officers found he had an active parole warrant and cited him for giving a false name, according to Broomfield Police Department spokeswoman Rachel Haslett.

He was held at the Broomfield Detention Center until Oct. 20, when the Division of Adult Parole ordered his release into the care of his family, with instructions to report to the Westminster Parole Office the following day. It remains unclear whether he made that appointment.

Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia confirmed that Garcia was under parole supervision during the Thursday gunfight. “We take this matter extremely seriously and are conducting a thorough internal review of Garcia’s supervision,” she said on Friday.