FORT LUPTON, Colo. – A woman sustained serious bodily injuries after a police vehicle she was handcuffed in was hit by a train on Sept. 16 in Fort Lupton, Colorado.
Colorado Bureau of Investigation officials identified the woman as 20-year-old Yareni Rios-Gonzalez.
According to the Fort Lupton Police Department, officers were dispatched after reports of someone “menacing with a handgun” on a local highway.
Officials say a Platteville police officer located Rios-Gonzalez’s vehicle and pulled her over while calling for backup “to assist with the high-risk vehicle stop,” a Facebook post from the FLPD states.
FLPD and Platteveill Police Department officers can be seen on bodycam footage instructing Rios-Gonzalez to her to exit her vehicle and stick her hands up in the air.
She is instructed to walk backward and then asks officers “what’s going on” before being detained at the scene.
Police can be heard telling Rios-Gonzalez that they will explain everything shortly as she continues to answer questions.
Officers then ask her if there is anyone in the truck or if she has any weapons in the vehicle. She says no to both and asks several times if she can have her cell phone.
A female officer responds and says she will retrieve her cell phone before the body cam video released by police cuts to an officer approaching the vehicle with his weapon drawn.
“Officers cleared the suspect vehicle to determine if anyone else was in the vehicle. Within a matter of seconds, the Platteville’s police vehicle, which contained the female detainee, was struck by a northbound train. Fort Lupton Officers immediately summoned medical assistance and began life sustaining measures,” Fort Lupton police said in a Facebook post.
The video shows the officers searching the vehicle, discussing whether or not Rios-Gonzalez threw a weapon out of her vehicle as a train horn sounds in the background.
Video then cuts to a different camera and shows another officer standing near the patrol vehicle Rios-Gonzalez was handcuffed inside of, which was also parked directly on the train tracks.
The officer appears to realize he doesn’t have time to move the car safely and runs out of the way of the oncoming train.
Video then shows a female officer call for emergency medical services.
“A patrol car was just hit by a train... get us medical — the suspect was in the vehicle that was hit by the train,” the female officer can be heard saying.
Multiple officers run toward the vehicle and pieces of debris can be seen scattered all over the ground.
Rios-Gonzalez is expected to survive, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Fort Lupton police are handling the criminal investigation of the incidents leading up to the initial call for police assistance. Colorado State Patrol is investigating the serious-injury traffic accident that occurred between the train and the Platteville Police Department patrol vehicle and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation is investigating the serious bodily injury of Rios-Gonzalez while in police custody, according to a press release.
The video ends with officers discussing whether or not there is a weapon in the vehicle after they discovered a holster in the front seat.
“We weren’t sure if she threw it or if it’s still hidden in the vehicle somewhere — it took her a long time to pull over,” one officer says.
The video ends with one officer appearing to discover a gun in the console.
According to 9NEWS, Rios-Gonzalez suffered nine broken ribs, a broken arm, a fractured sternum and numerous other injuries to her head and back. She has not been charged with a crime and neither have the officers involved in the incident. A potential road rage case against Rios-Gonzalez is still being reviewed.
Rios-Gonzalez has been released from the hospital and is now bedridden. Her attorney told 9NEWS that she is able to move around a little but has a “fractured leg that she wasn’t initially aware of.”
The incident is still under investigation.