A grand jury in Weld County has decided not to indict a Greeley police officer for fatally shooting a man on Nov. 8 after a standoff. 

Seth Luedtke, part of the Greeley Police Department’s SWAT team, shot Benjamine  Weise seven times in the head and upper torso as he crawled out from a hole under a trailer where he had hidden. The grand jury report says he had a knife in his hand.

Weld County grand jury to investigate fatal Greeley police shooting

Weise’s father called 911 for help getting his son — who lived in a shed at the end of a carport — off his property in the Meadow View Mobile Home Park on east 20th Street, according to the report, because Weise had active warrants for his arrest. His father said in the 911 call Weise told him he “will do something to make officers shoot him,” the report says.

The report does not mention the nature of Weise’s warrants. 

Officers who responded found Weise had crawled under the trailer. During a three-hour standoff, Luedtke fired pepper balls and 40-millimeter less-lethal rounds to make Weise come out, the grand jury report says.

When he began to come out from under the trailer holding a knife, Weise was about 4 to 6 feet from officers, according to the report. One officer testified they did not know if Weise had other weapons in the shed or under the trailer, and did not want to allow him to back out of the spot where he hid.

The grand jury report says Weise did not respond to commands by officers to drop the knife. However, it does not say why Luedtke felt justified in firing seven times.

“In reviewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, it was clear Benjamine Weise was not going to comply with police based on his statements and his actions,” the report says. “In this instance it does not matter whether or not Weise actually intended to stab the officers, it appeared to Mr. Luedtke that he and the other officers were in danger of serious bodily injury or death.”

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