A Lakewood man will spend more than a decade behind bars after slamming a stolen truck into police vehicles in Evergreen last fall.

Jefferson County District Judge Jason Carrithers on Monday sentenced 33-year-old Tyler James Young to 13 years in prison and three years of mandatory parole on convictions that stemmed from a police chase that occurred back in September, according to a news release from the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Young pleaded guilty to single counts of motor vehicle theft, vehicular eluding and second-degree assault in March in connection to the incident that occurred on Sept. 11.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputies initially responded to the Evergreen Walmart after a stolen Ford F-150 from Summit County was tracked to the area, according to arrest records. The truck belonged to a company that supplies radioactive materials to X-ray manufacturers.

When deputies arrived, they saw a man — later identified as Young —approaching the vehicle. Multiple patrol cars attempted to block the truck, but Young rammed through them. As he fled, a Colorado State Patrol officer fired a rifle at the truck.

The district attorney’s Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) investigated the incident to determine whether the officer’s use of force was justified, but it has not announced the findings.

Witnesses Shirley and Leigh Jones, who were dining at the nearby McDonald’s, said they saw multiple police vehicles surround the truck. The pickup suddenly turned, sending a police SUV into a median, then sped away. An officer exited the damaged vehicle and fired about eight shots at the fleeing truck before it merged onto eastbound Interstate 70.

Authorities pursued Young, with speeds exceeding 110 mph as the suspect drove “erratically” through traffic, according to the arrest warrant. Officers attempted a Precision Immobilization Technique maneuver twice before finally stopping the truck on a runaway ramp near mile marker 257.

Young was taken into custody with minor injuries. One officer was also injured when the truck struck his vehicle, according to the affidavit. I-70 remained closed for several hours while crews cleaned up spilled radioactive materials.

In a post-arrest interview, Young said he did not realize law enforcement was pursuing him and believed the sirens were meant for someone else.

Before the Sept. 11 incident, Young had three prior motor vehicle theft convictions — two in Jefferson County between 2020 and 2021, and one in Gilpin County in 2022. He was on probation from Gilpin County.

Judge Carrithers ended up giving Young the maximum sentence on all three counts, with each sentence running concurrently and concurrently with any other cases.

“This is a man who drove into patrol vehicles and then continued recklessly through rush-hour traffic in a stolen truck transporting hazardous materials. He is very lucky no one was seriously injured or killed,” Deputy District Attorney Corey Fluke said.

At the same time, approximately 3 miles away, residents gathered at Buchanan Park to support two Evergreen High School students who were critically injured the day before, when a 16-year-old opened fire inside the school. The suspect later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“Between yesterday and today, these are the two days of violence that have surpassed anything I’ve witnessed living up here,” Shirley Jones said at the time, reflecting on her 30 years in the area.