COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- The District Attorney's office has cleared a deputy in a shooting that left one woman dead back in September.
El Paso County Sheriff's deputies responded to the Chief Motel in the 1600 block of South Nevada Avenue around 7:25 p.m. Sept. 13 trying to arrest a fugitive.
When deputies approached a car that turned out to be stolen, the woman wanted got out but quickly got back in. Deputies learned 27-year-old Christen Vargas, who was wanted on four active felony warrants and had escaped from prison, was the driver.
Despite deputy orders to put the car in park and get out, Vargas accelerated quickly, running over a deputy's foot. Fearing he might be run over, the deputy shot Vargas through the driver's side window.
The passenger moved Vargas out of the driver's seat and eluded a deputy during a high-speed chase in the Broadmoor area. The car was abandoned about an hour later in the parking lot at Memorial Hospital.
Investigators did a computer simulation of the car and the situation and determined the deputy could have been run over if he hadn't fired the shot to alter Vargas' steering.
Vargas died in the car and was found later that night in the hospital parking lot. Deputies said the coroner found methamphetamine in her system.
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