The man who authorities say tracked down his stolen car in Denver, then shot and killed a 12-year-old boy inside it, previously was arrested in Maryland on impersonation charges after being stopped while driving a Ford Crown Victoria equipped with emergency lights and a siren, according to records obtained by The Denver Post.
A Denver police search warrant names Jack Reed, 35, as the man who shot and killed 12-year-old Elias Armstrong while the boy sat in the driver’s seat of Reed’s stolen car on Feb. 5.
Police determined someone in the car fired shots during the confrontation, and said the boy was killed in an “exchange of gunfire.” Denver District Attorney Beth McCann declined to press criminal charges against Reed.
Records obtained by The Post show Reed was frustrated by the tepid police response to his stolen vehicle that night — telling dispatchers he was armed and had to act because police would not — and was once criminally charged with making false statements to police.
“We have a 12-year-old boy who will never have a chance to see what his potential was,” said Earl Armstrong, Elias’ uncle. “Jack Reed on that day played officer, judge, jury and executioner. And obviously from the out-of-state charges, this is in his makeup. There is no way he should be set free.”
Earl Armstrong has called for Colorado lawmakers to regulate the use of GPS trackers as more people use the technology to find their stolen property and confront alleged thieves without police involvement.
A man who answered a phone number listed for Jack Reed on Monday initially said a reporter had reached the wrong number, then said “no comment” after the reporter explained the reason for the call. Reed did not return additional requests for comment sent through his social media profiles, one of which appeared to then be deactivated or made private.
Charges of impersonation, making false statements
When Jack Reed was pulled over in Maryland just before 9 p.m. on June 7, 2016, he was driving a 2008 Ford Crown Victoria — a model of car long used by law enforcement — that was decked out with emergency lights. He was carrying a loaded gun and extra ammunition, according to a Prince George’s County Police Department report obtained by The Post through an open records request.
The car he drove was equipped with a working emergency siren and lights mounted in the rear window that flashed red and yellow, activated from a “police-style center console,” according to the police report. The vehicle had an Ohio license plate — Reed was living there at the time — and an expired registration. He was stopped in Laurel, a town sandwiched between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
He was pulled over because emergency lights on the back of the car partially obstructed his license plate, according to the police report, and because the car was registered to a private owner yet appeared to be equipped with official emergency lights. The lights were not on when Reed was stopped, according to the report.
“I asked… the defendant what he was doing here in Maryland, carrying a gun and driving a car filled with emergency equipment that appeared to be a police vehicle,” Corporal Christopher Bonaiuto wrote in the report. “He stated he always carried his gun, and that he was in town to help a family member with his truck washing business.”
Under further questioning, Reed claimed he had the emergency lights in his vehicle because he was a firefighter at a small department in Tennessee. He showed the officer a badge from the fire department and said they allowed him to put emergency lights in his personal vehicle.
But he couldn’t produce his current credentials for the fire department, telling the officer he’d left them at home. And when the officer called the fire department, the fire chief told police Reed hadn’t worked for the department in any capacity for five years, and that he shouldn’t have any badges or credentials from the department, according to the police report.
The chief also said that firefighters needed a signed letter from the fire chief in order to legally install emergency lights in their vehicles, and Reed had no such letter.
Additionally, Reed’s Ohio concealed carry license was not recognized in Maryland. He was arrested and charged with having a handgun in a vehicle, having a handgun on his person, making false statements to police, and impersonation of a firefighter, according to clerks at the District Court of Maryland for Prince George’s County.
The local prosecutor’s office later dropped all the charges, according to court records. The court file does not give a reason for the dismissal and a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office did not return a request for comment on the case.
“He shot at me and I returned fire”
On the night Reed tracked down his stolen car in Denver, he called police just before 6 p.m. and reported that his Audi Q3 had been stolen from a shopping center in the northeast part of the city. He reported that he had a GPS tracker on the vehicle and told police where the Audi was located, according to a Denver police search warrant.
Reed “became agitated” with the police response, according to the search warrant, and “made threats to protect his property with a weapon and stated he would pull a gun on the suspect.” Reed then went home, where he collected his gun and got into another vehicle.
Just over an hour later, Reed called police again, but this time from across town in the Sun Valley neighborhood. Reed told the call taker he’d reported his car stolen but ‘”you guys’ would not stop it,” so he was “about to intercept them,” near West 12th Avenue and Decatur Street, according to the warrant.
A video of the subsequent confrontation shared with The Post by Elias’s family shows Reed pull up on the street beside his stolen car, park his vehicle and then sprint up to the driver’s side of the stolen Audi. As Reed approaches, one person jumps into the driver’s seat of the stolen car and pulls away as gunfire erupts. Several gunshots were heard on the 911 call, according to the search warrant.
“‘He shot at me and I returned fire,’” Reed told the police dispatcher, reporting, “shots fired,” according to the search warrant.
Reed then told the dispatcher he would put his guns on the hood of his vehicle and wait for police. When officers arrived, they found Elias Armstrong behind the wheel of the stolen Audi a short distance away. He had been shot multiple times and was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Police later discovered three spent shell casings in the backseat of the stolen Audi, and found video that showed Elias was with two other people during the confrontation. They’d left right after the shooting and were picked up by a driver blocks away, according to the search warrant.
McCann declined to file charges against Reed, saying prosecutors do not believe they could prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Elias’ father, Thomas Armstrong, said prosecutors told the family the man had a valid self-defense claim.
Elias’ family has protested that decision and pushed for charges to be filed. Earl Armstrong called Reed’s actions “vigilantism” and said the decision not to bring charges was “bogus.”
Thomas Armstrong said the prior arrest on impersonation charges adds important context to Reed’s actions during the confrontation over the stolen car.
“Wow. No wonder he acted the way he did,” Thomas Armstrong said. “I knew there was something about him. It doesn’t take for a normal person to do something the way he did… Now it makes all the sense in the world that he acted the way he did.”
Denver police refused to release additional video from city cameras showing the shooting and said Monday that the investigation remained active. A police spokesman did not answer a question about what in particular police are continuing to investigate in the wake of McCann’s decision not to bring charges against Reed.
Self-defense and use of deadly force
Under Colorado law, someone can use deadly force in self-defense only if that person reasonably thinks using less force won’t be sufficient, and the person reasonably believes he or someone else faces an immediate threat of being killed or seriously hurt.
A person can’t use deadly force to defend property, said Doug Richards, an attorney not associated with the case. He added Reed appeared to have acted to defend himself, not any property.
“He initiates contact to recover his property, and then the use of force toggles over to self-defense, not defense of property,” Richards said.
He added that as new technology allows more people to track and follow their stolen property without police involvement, confrontations like this one likely will become more common. Last month, a man in Texas used an AirTag, a tracking device sold by Apple, to find his stolen truck and shoot and kill the man inside, according to local news reports.
Colorado law allows individuals to make a citizen’s arrest when a crime has been or is being committed in the presence of the person making the arrest, and allows people to protect themselves with force, Richards added.
“It sounds like the DA made the right decision by not getting caught up in the emotion of the case — a 12-year-old is dead — but looking at it from the perspective of this citizen who, whether you agree or disagree with his decisions to try to detain these people, people are allowed to use force to defend themselves, to include deadly force,” Richards said.
Thomas and Earl Armstrong have called for a new Colorado law, which they want to be named after Elias, to prohibit individuals from pursuing and confronting others about stolen property tracked through GPS trackers.
“This is new,” Earl Armstrong said. “We need to get this technology regulated, to where someone else doesn’t lose a loved one through death or murder.”
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