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Accident Injures Four, Officer Attacked by Driver

August 19, 2005

A two-car crash injured four, and a responding police officer was the victim of a knife attack by the driver of the vehicle responsible for the crash. The officer shot the attacker, who later died from the gunshot wounds.

About 8:30 p.m., police were dispatched to a two-vehicle accident at East 64th Avenue and Colorado 2, near the Wembley dog track. 24-year-old Ivan Ruiz collided with a 1992 Ford Taurus occupied by four people who suffered minor injuries and were treated on the scene.

Ruiz, who had been driving a 1992 Geo Storm, tried to flee, but the uniformed officer chased him as he ran east on 64th. Police said that Ruiz confronted the officer with a long knife about 200 yards from the accident scene. The officer then opened fire. Ruiz was pronounced dead at Denver Health Medical Center after the shooting along East 64th Avenue, police spokesman Mike Saunders said.

The injured officer, who has been with the department about four years, was treated on the scene for a slash injury to his forearm and released. Police declined to identify him, pending an investigation by the Adams County Critical Incident Team. "I think the officer did an extraordinary job," Saunders said. Tests are being performed to determine whether drugs or alcohol were involved in the case.

Ruiz had a lengthy rap sheet in the metro area beginning in 2002. He had been arrested in connection with assault, hit-and-runs in Aurora and in California, driving under the influence, resisting arrest, leaving the scene of an accident and drug possession.