Court rules Colorado police won't pay for destroying home

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. (KUSA) – A family whose Greenwood Village, Colorado home was destroyed by police after an armed suspect took refuge inside it and refused to come out won’t get compensation from the city for their losses, according to a ruling from the 10th Circuit Appeals Court.

John Lech lived at the home with his girlfriend and her 9-year-old son when on June 3, 2015, officers from the Greenwood Village police department responded to a burglar alarm at the home.

All family members made it safely outside, but investigators learned that Robert Seacat, who was attempting to evade capture by the Aurora Police Department, was inside the randomly chosen home and refused to come out.

For nearly 19 hours, law enforcement worked to get Seacat out of the house. They fired several rounds of gas munition into the home, breached the home’s doors with a BearCat armored vehicle, and used explosives to create sightlines and points of entry to the home, according to the lawsuit.

When those efforts failed, officers used the BearCat to open multiple holes in the home and deployed a tactical team to apprehend Seacat. In the end, the home was uninhabitable.