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Area native shot during Denver-area robbery

November 21, 2009 @ 12:00 AM

WESTMINSTER, Colo. -- A former Cabell County sheriff's deputy was among two police officers shot in the line of duty Thursday during a shootout in suburban Denver that left two bank robbery suspects dead, police said.

Cabell County native Sean Chandler was identified as one of the injured Westminster, Colo., police officers, according to the Denver Post and Chandler's mother, Cabell Circuit Clerk Adell Chandler.

Chandler's mother talked to her 40-year-old son Thursday. She described his injuries as non-life threatening. She said doctors opted to leave a bullet lodged against his hip. Indications were that he may be released from the hospital soon, she said.

Westminster police spokesman Trevor Materasso said both suspects, a man and a woman, were dead, and that the injuries to the police officers weren't life-threatening.

The chase began after officers tried to pull over the suspects for allegedly robbing a bank. Police say the suspects fired at the officers during the chase before officers brought them to a halt after spinning out their car about 1.5 miles away. A shootout then broke out and the male suspect was killed. The woman was wounded and taken to a hospital where she later died.

No one inside the bank was harmed. Dozens of markers indicating where shell casings had landed were scattered around the scene. Two of the six police cars at the scene were pockmarked by gunfire.

Chandler served as a deputy in the Cabell County Sheriff's Office for approximately four years before his wife's career moved the family west. The couple has a 4-year-old daughter, Adell Chandler said.

Sean Chandler

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