In the crisp late morning of February 22, 2006, a dedicated 30-year-old male Colorado Springs Police Detective named Jared Scott Jensen was undercover, working to keep the city's streets safe. He had been with the department for three and a half years and had already been decorated twice for his outstanding work. On this particular day, he was part of a search for a man named Jereme Lamberth, who was wanted in connection with the stabbing of his own sister just weeks earlier.
Around
10:45 a.m., near the intersection of Costilla Street and Hancock Avenue, Detective Jensen spotted Lamberth. He radioed dispatch to inform them he was making contact with the suspect. Witnesses later recounted that Jensen, with handcuffs at the ready, approached Lamberth after he exited a 7-Eleven. In a sudden, violent turn of events, Lamberth produced a handgun and shot Detective Jensen in the head. As the detective fell to the ground, the suspect stood over him and fired again. Just four minutes after Jensen's final radio communication, citizens were calling 911 to report the shooting.
Responding officers found Detective Jensen on the sidewalk with critical gunshot wounds. He was rushed to Memorial Hospital, but his injuries were too severe, and he was pronounced dead at 12:10 p.m. The shooting launched a massive manhunt for Lamberth, leading to a significant portion of central Colorado Springs being shut down. The search, involving local, state, and federal law enforcement, concluded about an hour and a half later when FBI and ATF agents apprehended Lamberth in the Fountain Creek bed, a mile and a half from the scene of the shooting.
Jereme Lamberth, who had a criminal history dating back to 1995, was subsequently charged with the murder of Detective Jensen. In the ensuing legal proceedings, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder. On May 5, 2008, taking into account his prior felony convictions, a judge declared Lamberth a habitual criminal and sentenced him to 96 years in prison for the death of Detective Jared Scott Jensen.
