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Lakewood officer Ashley Ferris speaks out for first time since she stopped shooting rampage

By May 18, 2022 | updated 4 years ago

Lakewood police officer Ashley Ferris told a gaggle of reporters Wednesday that she didn’t feel like a hero the night she stopped a gunman who had already killed five people — and likely intended to shoot more people.

Lyndon McLeod was on foot, loading ammunition into his gun when he came face to face with Ferris near the Belmar shopping center.

“I didn’t want to let him win. I just stopped the threat. I was angry. Honestly, I was like, how dare he do this?” said Ferris, 29, who has stayed away from the limelight since her selfless act brought a sigh of relief to the Front Range on a cold, dark night right after Christmas.

Responding to a police alert and knowing that a shooter was on the loose nearby, Ferris placed herself at the corner of Vance and Alaska in the Belmar shopping center to wait, just in case. It wasn’t long before she saw the gunman dressed like a law enforcement officer strolling toward her. He had abandoned his van, fresh off a car chase and shootout with Lakewood police.

“He walked up to me wearing a police vest and loading magazines,” said Ferris. “I didn’t know who he was. I asked him if he was private security. You have a gut feeling and I knew this was the guy.”

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Lakewood police officer Ashley Ferris speaks to media during a press conference on Wednesday, May 18, 2022, at the Lakewood City Council Conference Room in Lakewood, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/The Denver Gazette)



Timothy Hurst


She said the shooter was no more than a foot from her when she saw his right hand move and she tried to stop it with her own hand: “I drew my gun. I told him, ‘Don’t do this.’ He said, ‘I’ll show you what I’ll do.’ Then he drew his gun and we were engaged in a gunfight.”

The gunman shot Ferris in the stomach and started to run away. She returned fire as she was falling, killing him with a bullet that tore through his rib area and chest. She fired two more rounds, striking him in the right thigh and left foot.

The episode was over in seconds, not nearly long enough for Ferris to think about what was happening except to respond to her training.

Ferris said she didn’t think she might die until she and the shooter were both lying on the ground bleeding.

“I was looking at the lights reflecting on the street and I was thinking it was peaceful,” Ferris said.

She could see him lying still across from her from underneath her police car.

“It wasn’t really scary at that moment. My brain transitioned from survival mode and I remember thinking, how bad is it?”

Then “the cavalry came” and she was thrown into a police car. An officer carried her on his shoulder as he charged through the doors of St. Anthony Hospital yelling, “Officer down!” When she realized the officer was her, it was a surreal moment.

Lakewood Police Chief Dan McCasky said he knows Ferris’ quick thinking and bravery saved lives that night.

“She’s a hero. She faced adversity and she won,” he said.

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Lakewood police officer Ashley Ferris reacts while speaking to media during a press conference on Wednesday, May 18, 2022, at the Lakewood City Council Conference Room in Lakewood, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/The Denver Gazette)



Timothy Hurst


People who knew the shooter say it’s ironic that a 5 feet, 4 inch, 115 pound fireball of a woman ended the life of a man they say was an alpha-male.

“He couldn’t survive this world without a woman to help him,” said Amanda Knight, who warned Denver police about his instability a year before the crime. “She was an angel sent from God. “

“The irony is kind of beautiful,” Ferris said. “He didn’t like women too much.” 

Survivors of the killing rampage have thought about Ferris, but none of them have thanked her in person.

One of those victims was Jimmy Maldonado, who survived a gunshot wound to the shoulder. He told The Denver Gazette that it’s hard to express his feelings about Ferris’ bravery.

“I’ve thought about the recent murders in Buffalo and how that shooter is still alive. If McLeod would have lived, how would I face life? What would I do?” said Maldonado. “I have to say thank you to her for stopping him. She and I will always have an unspoken bond.”

Maldonado’s injury is now healed enough that he can go rock climbing, and he has returned to work at Sol Tribe Tattoo, where his wife, Alyssa Gunn-Maldonado, was murdered along with the owner of the shop, Alicia Cardenas, 44.

The gunman killed three other people in under an hour that night: Michael Swinyard, 67, Danny Scofield, 38, and a hotel clerk, 28-year-old Sarah Steck. He had a grudge against all of them except Steck, who police have said was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Cardenas, Gunn-Maldonado, Swinyard and Scofield were all named in a long-winded trilogy McLeod wrote under the pseudonym Roman McClay called “Sanction.”

Tall tales aside, it’s Ferris’ own real-life story that Lakewood police want to focus on. She was a project manager who moved to Denver from Delaware and applied to be a police officer when she heard that Lakewood police were hiring. She didn’t think twice when her number was called. 

At an award ceremony Wednesday for the law enforcement officers, medical personnel and civilians who showed bravery that night, Ferris received a standing ovation from a theater full of people at the Lakewood Cultural Center. 

New information about the Dec. 27 shooting rampage was revealed at the event when Lakewood police honored a bartender and manager who were working at Belmar’s Ted’s Montana Grill that night.

Israel Platt was tending bar when the shooter walked in, grabbed a pint of bourbon and starting downing it.

“May I help?” she asked him. “I shot and killed 12 people today. I can make it 13,” he answered and aimed a gun at her head.

Restaurant manager Kevin Hall stepped between the two before the gunman smashed the bottle and left before eventually meeting up with Ferris. 

“I’d like to hope we’ll never have to do that again, but I know the world we live in,” McCasky said. “If it happens in this community, all of the law enforcement officers in Lakewood are ready for that challenge.” 

One woman took off her glasses to wipe away tears.

“It’s just so amazing to see these people close up,” said Judie Rossell, who watched the event. “You read about them and you know they’re heroes, but to see them in person makes you so grateful. First responders get up every day and their families don’t know if they’ll come home. God bless them.”  

“I feel like I did my job,” said Ferris, who will return to patrolling the streets Thursday. “This is what the community needs us to do. It’s my honor and my privilege to do it.”

PHOTOS: Hero Lakewood cop speaks out

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Carol McKinley, Special to the Denver Gazette

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