Man shot, killed by Fort Collins police connected to 2019 cold case

DENVER (KDVR) — The man who Fort Collins police shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire on July 21 has been connected to a 2019 cold case .

The incident on July 21 near Grandview Cemetery resulted in a Fort Collins Police Services officer being shot by the suspect, later identified as Clayton Pierce, 42. Pierce had been involved in a single-vehicle rollover at the intersection of Bryan Avenue and Mountain Avenue. The officer has since been released from the hospital.

However, according to the Larimer County District Attorney’s Office, Pierce was also a suspect in a homicide from 2019.

That year, Joseph “Sonny” Brigman, 62, of Fort Collins, was found unresponsive at his apartment in the 4100 block of Verbena Way. Brigman later died at the hospital.

Brigman’s death had been classified as a homicide, but no investigative leads provided any answers in the case, according to Fort Collins Police Services. Detectives revisited the case in 2023 and found sufficient evidence existed to prove Pierce had killed Brigman.

Before the incident at the Grandview Cemetery, detectives were working to finalize charges against Pierce. The Larimer County District Attorney’s Office said that if Pierce were not dead, they would have charged him with first-degree murder.

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