WESTMINSTER, COLORADO: Conservative firebrand Candace Owens has defended a Colorado police officer’s decision to shoot Alysha Duran after she stopped on the wrong side of the road and allegedly reached for a handgun when the officer approached her.
The 46-year-old Duran was shot after 4.40 pm on July 25, when the officer, only identified as N Adams noticed her SUV parked and facing the wrong direction on 88th Avenue at Lamar Drive.
A bodycam footage, released by the Westminster Police Department, showed how Adams conversed with another driver before approaching Duran, who sat stone-faced in her silver SUV alone.
When he asked her to roll down her window, she appeared to disregard him and took a few seconds before finally complying, according to Daily Mail.
Why was Alysha Duran shot?
After rolling down her window, Duran grabbed her pendant necklace and started caressing it as the officer tried to ask her if she was okay and what she was doing on the road.
The exchange swiftly escalated after the officer spotted a gun next to Duran. ''What have you got in there? What have you got in there? Oh f***,'' the officer can be heard screaming after discovering the firearm.
The officer began berating Duran while pulling his own gun from his holster and rushing around the rear of her car, a common technique used by police to increase the distance between themselves and perceived danger.
The officer then took a brief pause before opening fire, smashing the rear driver's side window and hitting Duran. The bullet passed through her and ended up in the windshield of an innocent bystander’s car.
Duran was immediately rushed to a local medical facility but was pronounced dead when she arrived. Authorities later confirmed that a gun was found in Duran’s car.
Adams has since been placed on administrative leave as higher officials continue to investigate the shooting.
''We understand the concerns that arise after an officer-involved shooting. It is important to remember these situations are complex and often involve tough-split-second decisions made by our officers,’' the department's statement said.
How Candace Owens justified Alysha Duran's shooting
On August 22, the 34-year-old Owens shared a short clip of her podcast on X, formerly Twitter, where she justified Duran’s shooting, explaining how Officer Adams made the right decision as he didn’t know what her intentions were.
“She's not answering him, she's not replying, she's not saying anything. I don't know what she's going through, I don't know if she's on drugs. And then, having not said a single word back to him after a couple of minutes, she proceeds to grab a gun in her vehicle. Hmm, let me think. Justified! Justified!” Owens said.
She continued by noting how the situation intensified after Duran grabbed her handgun instead of answering Adams’ inquiries.
She added, “You hear that officer's voice, you hear the emotion in his voice, how terrified he is. Now, we don't know his circumstances. Let's say he's got a wife and kids at home, young kids.”
She further said, “So he thinks he's going to have a conversation with this woman. It turns out she grabs a gun. That situation immediately transforms into life or death. Whose life was it going to be and whose death was it going to be,” Owens fumed.
The presenter then continued, declaring, “If you're an idiot and you've had your brain rotted by BLM and you hate the police and you go, oh, no matter what, he should have thought to grab a taser while she grabbed a gun and tried to take, he could have put her in a choke hold, coulda, woulda, shoulda, until there's a gun in your face.”
Owens then reflected on the possibility of Duran grabbing her gun and triggering a shooting spree on the freeway. “Maybe she was gonna grab the gun and go on a shooting spree,” she said.
She went on to add, “Every single person on the freeway gets to go home to their families that night because of something that the officer did.”
Explaining the complexity of the situation for the officer, she said, “It's very easy for us. We get to watch it in retrospect. What are 20 different things that I might have done? Now that I know that this woman has a gun, that's not how they're able to operate at the moment.”
“They don't have that information available to them. And so, as I said, this woman, unfortunately, did something very stupid. The officer did the right thing in response. This was an absolutely justified shooting,” Owens expressed.
