Colorado Police Shot and Killed Pregnant Woman They Believed Stole from Target and Dragged An Officer Under Minivan In Escape. They Were Wrong. Now the City Owes Her Family $2 Million
Colorado police officer Anthony Benallo claimed he shot and killed Destinee Thompson in a case of mistaken identity because he believed the pregnant woman was dragging a fellow officer under her car as she was speeding away from a group of aggressive police officers who had already shattered her passenger window.
But the Arvada police officer he claimed to have been protecting was standing only a few feet away from him in his line of vision, according to a video reenactment created by the Arvada Police Department because none of the cops on the scene were wearing body cameras.
Now the Arvada Police Department has agreed to pay Thompson’s family $2 million in a settlement announced earlier this week, according to NBC News.
“Officer Benallo’s stated reason for killing Ms. Thompson was because he thought another officer, Sergeant Jeff Orndoff, was being dragged under Ms. Thompson’s van,” stated the lawsuit filed against the Arvada Police Department in 2023.
“But Sergeant Orndoff was standing in plain view a few feet away, safe and sound. Anyone in Officer Benallo’s position could and should have seen him. It was also obvious that no one was being dragged under Ms. Thompson’s minivan as it drove away from the officers.”
“Officer Benallo’s decision to kill Ms. Thompson was patently unreasonable, as shown by law enforcement’s own reconstruction of the scene at the time Officer Benallo shot and killed Ms. Thompson.”
But as usual, Benallo was cleared of any criminal charges by the district attorney, who claimed in her report that any “reasonable person” would have shot and killed the 27-year-old mother of three children, who was in her seventh month of pregnancy, under the existing circumstances.
However, Siddartha Rathod, the attorney representing Thompson’s family, argued that the “reasonable officers” were the three cops at the scene who did not fire their guns at the fleeing vehicle because they knew she was not a threat to them.
“Any reasonable officer in Officer Benallo’s position would have seen Sergeant Orndoff standing unharmed a few feet away as Ms. Thompson’s minivan turned left onto the road,” according to the claim.
“Any reasonable officer in Officer Benallo’s position would have seen that no one was pinned to the hood of Ms. Thompson’s minivan as it drove away on the road, and that no one was being dragged underneath the minivan.”
Rathod believes she was profiled because she was Hispanic/Native American.
“If this was a affluent white person getting into her vehicle, they would never have stopped her,” he told CBS News in 2023.
The Real Suspect
The incident took place on Aug. 17, 2021 after Arvada police responded to a call about a woman walking out of a Target store with stolen merchandise, then threatening a loss prevention officer with a switchblade knife when he tried to stop her.
That woman, Shawna Colby, sported a large tattoo on her chest, according to surveillance video from the store.
And Thompson had no such tattoo on her chest when she was confronted by police officers in the hotel that Colby had entered after leaving the Target.
But Colby, who initially was wearing a black tank top, removed that tank top as she made her getaway, leaving her with a white tank top, according to a witness who followed her out of the store to the hotel.
And Thompson was also wearing a white tank top that day, and was also similar in appearance to a casual observer because both women had brown skin and black hair. But Colby was eight years older and four inches taller.
“It is clear that Destinee had committed no crime and had not been the individual who was shoplifting,” attorney Rathod told Colorado Public Radio in 2023.
“The only similarity between Destinee and the shoplifter was the color of her skin.”
The Shooting
Thompson had entered the hotel lobby from room 417 because she was planning to meet her stepmother for lunch, but she was confronted by police.
“I’m not the girl you’re looking for,” she told the cops.
“I seen the little guy with the mustache, right, he’s looking for his girlfriend, right? She at room 303.”
The “little guy with the mustache” was the witness who had followed Colby to the hotel while on the phone with police dispatch.
“She’s coming down the elevator,” Thompson told the officer.
At this point, it should have been obvious to the officer standing directly in front of her that Thompson did not have a large tattoo on her chest but he demanded her identification.
However, Thompson, who had two active arrest warrants, walked away from the officer, telling him she had no identification, which is when they decided to arrest her.
Once outside the hotel, Thompson stepped into her car but was immediately surrounded by police officers, some in plainclothes. One plainclothes officer parked an unmarked truck directly behind her car to prevent her from backing out.
The cops were yelling commands and trying to open her doors which were locked when a cop shattered her passenger side window, providing Benallo a clear view of Orndoff — the officer he claimed was being dragged under the car — through the broken window, the claim states:
“Each police officer at the scene escalated the encounter by acting aggressively, yelling over one another, and creating a scene of ‘commotion’ (as described by Officer Benallo) while Ms. Thompson sat frightened in her minivan.
“After Officer Dennehy broke Ms. Thompson’s window, Officer Benallo could see through the window of Ms. Thompson’s minivan, and saw Sergeant Orndoff.”
Thompson drove forward over the curb and onto the street to make her getaway and was about 25 feet when Benallo opened fire eight times, striking her with the final shot that killed Thompson and her unborn baby.
“As Officer Benallo fired his gun, he continued to have an unobstructed view of Sergeant Orndoff, who was standing nearby,” the claim states.
“No other officers fired their weapons.”
Colby was arrested after police obtained a warrant for room 303 where she was found with a switchblade knife.
The Investigation
Eight months later, Alexis King, the district attorney for the First Judicial District in Colorado, released her report clearing Benallo of any wrongdoing, stating that any reasonable person would have done the same thing:
Because the Officer had objectively reasonable grounds to believe, and did believe, that he and the officers were in imminent danger of being killed or suffering serious bodily injury, shooting at Ms. Delara-Thompson was legally justified.
No lesser use of force could reasonably ameliorate that danger.
Moreover, a reasonable person, under like conditions and circumstances, at the time Ms. Delara-Thompson was shot, would believe that it appeared that deadly physical force was necessary to prevent imminent deadly harm to the agents or other persons.
But Thompson’s stepmother, Carmela Delgado, was left disgusted by the shooting and the decision to not charge Benallo.
“I really have a hard time justifying or understanding the force that was used,” she told Colorado Public Radio in 2023.
“And not only that, the crime and the punishment do not fit, and for them to pardon and justify that and say he was within his rights and doing what he, just doing his job, that is very, very concerning to me,” Delgado added.
Her father, Francis Thompson, was also disgusted.
“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with,” he told NBC News in 2023. “I want justice. I don’t think it’s fair that the officers are still working without punishment.”
“I wish I could tell her one more time that I love her, and I’ll never stop fighting for her. I’m not going to let go,” Thompson added.
Watch the reenactment of the shooting created by the Arvada Police Department below.