BY DAVID GRANT LONG

The fatal shooting of William "Sarge" Baldwin, a Vietnam veteran slain by a Montezuma County sheriff’s officer last October, came only after extensive negotiations during which Baldwin repeatedly threatened to kill the police and unleashed more than 100 volleys of rifle and shotgun fire, some of it in their direction, according to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent who investigated the incident.

"Come and kill me. Let’s get it on," the 48-year-old Baldwin yelled at Deputy Steve DeKruger during a phone conversation shortly before his death on the morning of Oct. 12, CBI agent Steve Vaughan said in an affidavit filed in Montezuma County Court last month.

Vaughan’s detailed account of the events leading up to the shooting is included in court documents that charge Pete Mola, Baldwin’s companion during much of the shootout, with several felony and misdemeanor counts, including being an accessory to a Class 1 or 2 felony, obstructing government operations and resisting arrest. A warrant that sets a $10,000 bond has been issued for Mola’s arrest, according to a county court clerk, but he has remained at large since the charges were filed on Jan. 19.

Shortly after 1 a.m., officers from both the sheriff’s office and the Cortez police responded to several reports of shots being fired at the Vista Verde Village trailer park and found they were coming from within Baldwin’s lot, which was surrounded by a six-foot chain-link fence with a locked gate, Vaughan said.

Baldwin had become enraged over a neighbor’s barking dog earlier that night, Mola later told police, and asked him to come to his residence to be a "witness."

The pair then began drinking beer —enough to make Mola legally intoxicated, he later admitted —and Baldwin called dispatch to find out if the trailer park was outside the city limits, which it was. (Discharging a firearm within Cortez is illegal.)

"Mr. Baldwin then decided to ‘try out’ his guns and (said) he was ‘ticked off’ at the neighbor’s dog," Vaughan explained. "Mr. Mola said that Mr. Baldwin did not shoot at anyone and . . . was shooting at a tree across from his property and into public land."

When the police arrived, Baldwin "told the officers he was an American, served three tours of duty in Vietnam, had the right to bear arms and that he was not bothering anyone," the affidavit said.

Things quickly went downhill from there.

During the phone negotiations which began with DeKruger at about 3 a.m., "Baldwin tells DeKrueger (sic) to call his attorneys and that if anyone climbs over his fence, he has the right to shoot them," the affidavit says, and Baldwin also asked if the sheriff "called out the SWAT team to get them killed."

Although Mola, who had a loaded 9 mm handgun on him when he finally surrendered, at first denied he’d taken any active part in the standoff, he later admitted he’d also fired a few rounds from Baldwin’s M-1 carbine, according to the affidavit.

Mola, who maintained during the police interview that he had been trying to "defuse the situation," also admitted he’d helped Baldwin continue his fusillade by loading magazines for the semi-automatic rifle, according to the affidavit, and had more than 100 spent shell casings in a bag when he gave himself up.

". . . when Baldwin would fire all of the cartridges contained within a ‘clip’ or magazine, Baldwin would hand the empty magazine to Mola," Vaughan wrote. "Mr. Mola would then pick up the spent cartridges from under Mr. Baldwin’s feet."

When asked why he’d given Baldwin this assistance, Mola said he "wouldn’t know a really good answer except I had told him we might as well have them loaded," the affidavit said.

Mola said although he didn’t believe Baldwin was suicidal, he "‘figured’ he was going to die."

As officers led Mola away from the fence sometime between 6 a.m. and 7:43 a.m., after he’d unlocked the gate, they heard and felt shots being fired in their direction, the affidavit states.

"Deputy (Jason) Spruell heard at least five gunshots coming from behind him and felt rocks and/or debris hitting the backs of his legs," Vaughan stated. "He recalled seeing at least two bullets striking the ground just to the left of him and about one to two feet from his left foot."

Mola was shoved behind a patrol car for protection, and conceded to Vaughan that the action might have saved his life.

Once Mola had left, DeKruger could hear Baldwin reloading and chambering his rifle, and made a final appeal for his surrender.

"He tells DeKrueger that he is not coming out and that he wants the officers to come into the trailer and kill him," the affidavit says. Baldwin apparently then shot and superficially wounded Sgt. Bill Connor with birdshot from the 12-gauge.

"I’m duck hunting," he can be heard saying on the tape recording of the night’s phone calls, and then began to fire the rifle again, telling DeKrueger he was "deer hunting," referring to the other officers, according to Vaughan. He told the negotiator that he had one officer, later identified as Cortez Assistant Police Chief Russ Johnson, in his telescopic sight and threatened to kill him, Vaughan said.

Soon after these events, Sheriff Joey Chavez authorized the use of lethal force to end the stand-off.

According to Vaughan’s statement, Baldwin remained "very angry and belligerent" with DeKruger and repeatedly refused to surrender.

"He yells, ‘I’m going to do it. . . f----- punks. . . are going to die,’ " Vaughan wrote in his account of the tape-recorded exchanges. "The officers are going to die either ‘before or in front of me . . . I’m not going to quit," he quotes Baldwin as declaring to DeKruger, whom he also threatened personally.

Again Baldwin could be heard reloading a weapon, it said, and DeKrueger remarked, "Lock and load."

Finally, Baldwin appeared on the deck of his trailer with a 12-gauge shotgun and Connor fired a round at him and missed.

"You guys are playing games," Baldwin shouted. "You guys want to shoot back and forth, we can do that."

Connor’s second shot from his sniper’s rifle then found its mark, slaying Baldwin with a bullet to the head.