Arvada Police Officer Dillon Vakoff. (Provided by Arvada Police Department) The officer who died was Dillon Michael Vakoff, 27, Strate said during a morning news conference. Vakoff and another officer responded to a “large family disturbance” call in the 6700 block of W. 51st Avenue at 1:41 a.m., Strate said. When the two officers arrived, they found a “chaotic scene,” with several people in the street, he said. Officers were trying to separate “belligerent and uncooperative” people in the street when the suspect started shooting. The suspect shot a woman and at which point the two officers returned fire. Vakoff was then shot by the suspect, Strate said. He cautioned that the investigation is in its early stages and information is preliminary. The second officer tried to help Vakoff, who was taken to the hospital where he died. The suspect was also shot and hospitalized. Both the injured woman and the suspect are expected to survive, Strate said. The suspect was still being treated and was in custody Sunday, he said. The suspect has not been publicly identified. Strate said investigators are not sure how the woman became involved in the disturbance. Vakoff joined the Arvada Police Department in 2019 and previously served six years in the U.S. Air Force, rising to the rank of staff sergeant, Strate said. He was training to be a SWAT officer. “Dillon is an example of everything that is good about a police officer,” Strait said. Arlene Hackenberg, who lived in a home near the fatal shooting, said she was awakened by flashing police lights early Sunday morning and that her friend heard three gunshots. The neighborhood consists of a few houses and apartments on a cul-de-sac tucked between I-76, empty greenhouses and a business park. It can be rough, Hackenberg said, and there have been problems on the road in the past. “It’s a shame, my heart goes out to the officer and his family,” he said. Strate did not take questions during a news conference Sunday morning.
