Denver police officer arrested on two charges

Chronicle Staff

Published: Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

Luckily for three law enforcement officers, a Denver woman they encountered Tuesday evening, March 24, was a poor shot. Kachina McAlexander, 31, a police officer from Denver, was taken into custody at the Custer Super 8 after she fired 10 shots at Custer County Sheriff’s deputies Derrick Booker and Frank Kistler and S.D. Highway Patrolman Todd Albertson.  The officers were called to the Super 8 at around 9 p.m. for a welfare check on McAlexander. Upon arrival at the motel, the deputies were informed by the front desk clerk that the woman was threatening suicide.  According to a Denver Post article, the officers were called because McAlexander’s mother said she was concerned about her welfare after a phone call. Once at the woman’s room, the officers encountered McAlexander with a gun in her hand. When she was ordered to put down the weapon and come out of the room, she discharged the weapon several times in the direction of the deputies, who had backed away from the door — missing every time.  When she was tazerized by the officers, McAlexander said she instinctively returned fire. McAlexander has been charged with three counts of attempted second-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault against a law enforcement officer. No bond was set pending a mental health evaluation. The incident is being investigated jointly by the sheriff’s department and the state Department of Criminal Investigation. According to the Post article, this is not the first time the Denver police officer has been charged with improper use of a firearm. In 2006, she was charged with prohibited with use of a weapon, a class two misdemeanor; and reckless endangerment, a class three misdemeanor; after she shot up her basement walls and TV in the basement of her home. The Post article went on to say that, according to court testimony in that case, McAlexander summoned her girlfriend to her home to pick up her belongings. When the woman showed up, she found a suicide note on the front door. When deputies entered the home, the found McAlexander alive, but lying down in the basement, where they discovered that she had fired several shots from a semiautomatic handgun into the walls and TV. Despite those charges, McAlexander remained on the Denver Police Department, where she worked in the records unit, in the bureau of research, training and development.  As a sworn officer, she was authorized to carry a police-issued firearm.  She has now been suspended from the Denver force without pay pending an internal-affairs investigation into the Custer situation, according to the Denver Post.