This article was authored by Jacob Richards and originally published in the Colorado Times Recorder (CTR) on July 15, 2026. Republished with full permission from CTR.
GRAND JUNCTION — As more information continues to come to light, questions remain about the June 19 Grand Junction Police killing of Patti Wilson.
Around 6:30 p.m on June 19, police responded to initial reports of someone with a knife going “crazy and yelling” in the Dairy Queen at 7th St. and North Ave. After a brief confrontation in the parking lot between police on foot and Wilson in her vehicle, eleven shots rang out. She was hit twice as she was apparently fleeing, crashing into three other vehicles as she succumbed to her wounds seven blocks to the east.
Initial police scanner traffic and media reports misgendered Wilson as a male. It has since come to light that Wilson identified as a woman. In compliance with Colorado law, the Mesa County Coroner and local law enforcement have since referred to Wilson by her preferred gender.
Local comment sections, on the other hand, have become a cesspool of transphobia and hate.
“Patti Wilson’s death has brought out the lowest underbelly of hatred in the Grand Valley,” said local LGBTQ+ activist Heidi Jeanne Hess. “Rampant transphobia is on display for all to see in the extremely violent comments on social media.”
Wilson’s killing has been picked up and spun by reactionary social-media accounts like Libs of TikTok, talk radio, and national right-wing websites, which “promote a false narrative that trans individuals are inherently dangerous and are prone to violence,” said Hess.
KREX TV’s initial Facebook post about the incident, which accurately reported Wilson’s preferred gender, received more laugh reactions than all other reactions combined, and many of the comments are unquotable. At least one was made by a mental health counselor employed by the local public school district.
“The amount of joy in a police murder is disturbing, and most of that glee seems to come from the place of trans hate,” said Cassie Downey, a Grand Junction resident and member of the LGBTQ+ community.
“The facts, statistics and lived experience show overwhelmingly that trans people are at higher risk to be the recipients of violence and death,” said Hess.
According to witnesses, the whole incident started when Wilson didn’t have enough money to pay for a large Cherry Coke. As it escalated, Wilson refused bystanders’ offers to buy her a Cherry Coke, and pulled a knife. An older man stepped in and began to hit Wilson with a chair.
Two graphic videos taken inside Dairy Queen begin with an older man hitting Wilson with a chair and receiving a severe cut on his forearm while attempting to punch Wilson. Wilson is yelling, “Stay the fuck away from me,” and has a knife in her hand. Wilson then goes after the man, before leaving the store.
Wilson, according to those who knew her, has long struggled with mental health. According to friends, Wilson had recently left an abusive relationship.
Additionally, like too many young trans people, Wilson struggled through bouts of homelessness.
The videos from inside the Dairy Queen don’t tell a complete story, but they look very much like the dangerous mental health crisis described by eyewitnesses in initial media accounts.
“This is not the person I knew; I had this person over to my house for Thanksgiving three years ago,” said Lilli Moore. Moore lived in the Grand Valley for eight years and knew Wilson through mutual connections within the small but vibrant LGBTQ community here.
“Resources are dropping like flies in Mesa County for those experiencing crises. There’s nowhere for them to go. It’s almost like when you take away the crisis center, then people who are in crisis can’t get the help they need, and they go do crazy shit,” said Moore in a Facebook reel addressed to the people of Grand Junction.
Since Trump has taken office, Grand Junction has been even harder hit. Mindspring Mental Health and its WestSprings inpatient hospital have closed. The Homeward Bound of the Grand Valley closed its North Avenue Emergency shelter – the largest homeless shelter between Denver and Salt Lake City. Even Mesa County’s own Behavioral Health Department has been shuttered.
“I do believe if we had a properly funded mental health crisis response, she wouldn’t have been killed,” said Downey.
Last week, the Grand Junction Police Department released the names of the two officers involved in the Wilson shooting: Zachary Diaz and Tim Long. The officers remain on paid administrative leave as the 21st Judicial District conducts its Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) investigation.
Officer Diaz is no stranger to the process; he was cleared in the 2020 non-fatal shooting of Victor Jackson. The 21st Judicial District CIRT team has been activated 42 times since 2002, and only once were officers charged with wrongdoing.
According to time-stamped police radio traffic archived by JunctionNow, things escalated quickly in the parking lot after Wilson left the Dairy Queen. Seconds after an officer reported, “We have [her] car at gunpoint,” another officer reported, ”We have shots fired.” Leaving little time for attempts at de-escalation or less-than-lethal alternatives.
Colorado law allows for officers to use deadly force “only when all other means of apprehension are unreasonable,” and if three other conditions are met: 1) The arrest is for a violent felony, 2) The suspect poses an immediate threat to officers or others, and 3) “The force employed does not create a substantial risk of injury to other persons.”
A short video of the shooting, first reported in the Grand Junction Sentinel, shows a Grand Junction officer firing towards North Avenue traffic while shooting into Wilson’s fleeing vehicle. Another officer is off camera, and the audio indicates that 11 shots were fired.
WARNING: The video below shows a police officer firing repeatedly at Wilson’s car.
Contrary to the narrative being spun by pro-police commentators on social media, the bystander video shows that when lethal force was applied, no officers appear to be in immediate danger, as Wilson seems to be turning her vehicle away from the officers, not toward them.
“Why did they [GJPD] fire into a moving vehicle towards civilians and busy traffic?” asked Downey.
After being shot, Wilson fled, making contact with three other vehicles and causing one of them to overturn and sending another person to the hospital. Patti Wilson was pronounced dead at the scene of the final crash.
The Denver Police Department has had a policy against firing into fleeing cars for over a decade now, for safety reasons illustrated by the events of June 19.
While the CIRT investigation continues, the community continues to ask questions, and the reactionaries continue to pounce on this incident to shape a narrative about trans violence.
Meanwhile, a mom is grieving, and a human has lost their life.
“My heart is so broken and will never be repaired,” wrote Wilson’s mother, Kayla Wilson, in an online fundraiser set up in an effort to get her child’s remains back to her hometown of Dixon, Illinois.
Wilson created music under the name Patti Dracula on BandCamp. She was passionate about politics, as confusing and nuanced as they were.
No one in the community is condoning Wilson’s acts of violence, but many are worried about the rising tide of violent transphobia, and others are questioning the rapid escalation to an ultimately reckless use of force. Many more ponder if this whole tragedy could have been avoided if there was a functioning social safety-net and mental health system.
“[The public needs to] remember, this was a person experiencing a medical crisis and they could not get the medical intervention they needed, and then multiple people ended up harmed, and this person ended up dead,” said Moore.
One Colorado, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, issued a statement that read in part: “Our hearts are with Patti’s loved ones, friends, and the Grand Junction LGBTQIA+ community as they grieve this profound loss.”
The Grand Junction Police Department and the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office were unable to comment while the CIRT investigation is ongoing.
Ways for people in crisis to get help:
Call or text 988 to talk to the Colorado Mental Health Line. 24 hours a day. (Note: they will send police to do wellness checks sometimes, placing the person in crisis at potential risk.)
Health Solutions West provides mental health care across western Colorado 1-877-603-7045
There are also non-carceral support lines that will not call the police:
Call Backline: 1.800.604.5841
Thrive Lifeline: 1.313.662.8209
Trans Lifeline: 1.877.565.8860
Community is often the best support. Queer and trans folks looking for community in western Colorado should check out:
Loving Beyond Understanding in Grand Junction
Mountain Prides The Space in New Castle.
Headline photo courtesy JunctionNow.com