AURORA | Police on Wednesday said a man who killed three people Saturday before being shot by police after a standoff had three weapons with him — an assault rifle, a shotgun and a pistol.
Sonny Archuleta, 33, purchased the weapons legally at licensed dealers before turning them on Stacie Philbrook, 29, Christopher Ratliffe, 33, and Anthony Ticali, 56.
The weapons included an AR-15 assault rifle, .40-caliber handgun and a pump-action shotgun, police said.
Police first responded to the townhome in the 16000 block of East Ithaca Place shortly before 3:00 a.m. Saturday on a reports of shots fired.
When they arrived, police spoke to a woman who had escaped from the home who said a man inside had fired shots and there appeared to be three people dead inside.
Hostage negotiators arrived and police surrounded the home. Police reached the man inside by phone but said phone contact was intermittent for several hours.
Multiple times police told the man via phone and bullhorn to come out, but he refused.
“He was behaving very irrationally throughout the incident and often hanging up on the negotiators,” Aurora police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement.
Around 8 a.m., SWAT officers in an armored vehicle approached the front of the house to break out a window.
When they approached, the man inside fired multiple rounds at the officers, striking the vehicle but not injuring any officers. Police didn’t return fire.
Over the next hour, officers shot gas into the house and again commanded the man to leave.
Around 9 a.m., the man appeared near a second-story window and fired at officers again. This time, officers returned fire and struck the man.
When officers entered the house, they found the suspect dead in an upstairs bedroom and the three victims dead elsewhere in the house.
The investigation is ongoing, police said, and when it is complete it will be reviewed by the Arapahoe County district attorney’s office. The department will also launch an internal review.