No Charges Filed Against Loveland Officer in Domina Case

After weeks of investigation by the Eighth Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin has announced they will not be filing any criminal charges against Loveland Police Officer Eddie Luzon.

On August 16, 2021, Officer Luzon was the responding officer to a 911 call about 19-year-old Alex Domina having a mental health crisis in the backyard of his legal guardian's house. Domina's guardian, Judy Domina, was the one who placed the emergency call.

When Officer Luzon responded to the scene, he found Mr. Domina with a knife. Officer Luzon reportedly attempted to communicate with Mr. Domina to diffuse the situation. Officer Luzon claimed Ms. Domina was adamant that Mr. Domina could be talked to and reasoned with.

The final report from the CIRT said that Officer Luzon was in the backyard for one minute and 13 seconds before he had to fire a shot. The Loveland Police Department released body camera footage of the incident that showed the damage Mr. Domina was doing to the backyard, as well as clearly showing the large knife Mr. Domina was wielding.

According to the official CIRT report, Officer Luzon asked Mr. Domina to put the knife down three times, he asked Mr. Domina to just talk to him four times and said some version of "stop" approximately six times.

More information about the incident, including a near second by second breakdown of the interaction between Officer Luzon and Mr. Domina, can be found here.

D.A. McLaughlin spoke on the outcome of the investigation, saying:

Mr. Domina's death was a tragedy. [...] While police are often used as a last resort, the burden cannot fall solely on a responding officer who did not have the knowledge provided by the subsequent investigation, including the depth of Mr. Domina's cognitive disabilities, which even previous behavioral health intervention had failed to safely resolve.

However, McLaughlin also spoke about how he hopes this case will bring reform to the Loveland Police Department and other departments in terms of other behavioral health crises.