AdCo deputy in dog shooting was cleared in Cambron death

BRIGHTON — An Adams County sheriff’s deputy cleared two months ago in connection to a fatal shooting in February 2012 has been identified as the officer who shot and killed a dog Jan. 14 after entering the wrong location while responding to an alarm.
    Deputy Wilfred A. Europe III, 31, was taken off patrol last week as an investigation into the shooting has been launched.
    The incident occurred when two deputies entered the wrong address while responding to a business alarm in the 5400 black of Tennyson Street. When Ziggy, an 8-year-old, 35-pound border collie/blue heeler mix, ran out the door, one of the deputies shot the dog three times.
    Europe was also the officer who shot and killed a man — Don Cambron, 40 — during a traffic stop last February. The independent Adams County Critical Incident Team cleared Europe of wrongdoing in November 2012.
    Cambron was riding in an SUV with three others — Tim Collins, Thomas Hibdon and Michelle Meyers — near Federal Boulevard and 63rd Avenue in February 2012 when the vehicle was pulled over for a routine traffic stop. Officers involved in the stop called for backup “because he felt ... the circumstances and actions of the parties in the car were strange,” according to the report from the
    Officers that night were arresting Collins on two outstanding warrants related to an arrest in Idaho when one deputy reported seeing Cambron reaching for a pellet gun on the floorboard of the SUV, which officers said looked similar to a 9mm semiautomatic weapon. Europe fired four shots, killing Cambron.
    Europe was placed on leave following the shooting but remained employed as a sheriff’s deputy.