“The sadness turns to anger,” says Andrea Feltman when talking about her son, nineteen-year-old Kyler Grabbingbear, who was unarmed when he was shot to death in Thornton by an Adams County deputy early on December 7. In conversation, Feltman breaks down into tears on several occasions, overcome by a sense of loss even as she’s in the midst of planning her boy’s funeral services, scheduled to take place on Saturday, December 16, followed by a vigil at the scene where he died; get details below. But her voice is firm when referring to the actions of the deputy, whose identity has not been publicly released at this writing. “Kyler wasn’t shot,” she stresses. “He was slain. He was murdered.”
Feltman has been frustrated by the comments that have appeared on articles about Grabbingbear’s death. “I can’t even look at Facebook right now,” she acknowledges. “I clicked on something put up by somebody popping off at the mouth, and I just put my phone down. It was like, I can’t. That’s my baby.”
She adds: “Kyler wasn’t a drug dealer, criminalistic kid like they’re talking about when they’re assuming all this stuff and making themselves look like asses. I did post one thing, and I tried to say it as respectfully as I could. I was like, ‘Hey, I’d appreciate it if you guys wouldn’t run off at the mouth about my child until you know the facts.’ And people were still like, ‘Good job, sheriff. Good job, officer.’ But good job for what? Good job for killing an innocent man? What if it was me who’d killed an innocent man like that? I’d be going down for it. But this deputy won’t, because he has a badge.”
As for what Grabbingbear was really like, Feltman notes that “he was an only child. He was raised by me as a single mom. I had some help from the family, but for the majority of the time, it was him and me — and he was a great kid. He played basketball, baseball, football. He had a few select, close friends, but he was a homebody. He was an animal lover, an animal-rights activist. He was a loving, caring free spirit who was trying to finish high school. He was behind, but he wanted to finish, wanted to be a cardiac surgeon. He tried to help people, and he wanted to save lives. He was a grandson and a great-grandson and a nephew, and he was compassionate. He’d give you the shirt off his back. And he didn’t get into trouble. He didn’t party, he didn’t do drugs, he didn’t drink. He just kind of kept to himself.”
In addition, Feltman goes on, “he was very spiritual, and he was so respectful. Anybody who came into contact with him would say he was awesome. On Monday, I had to go to the county to fill out some paperwork to get some assistance with the burial, and I ran into this woman we’d seen the week before. She’d helped Kyler get a food-stamp card; he was looking for a job, but he wasn’t working. And she said when she saw his name on the news, she lost it. She said, ‘I can’t believe it. I just saw him in front of me, and he was such a great kid.'”
He could also “piss you off to the fullest,” Feltman admits with a bittersweet laugh. “The other night, he lectured me for forty minutes — about not cleaning the car! I hadn’t cleaned it because I’ve got a broken foot. But he was like, ‘Come on, Mom!’ Just lecturing me about life things. He was like, ‘You pay your car insurance and make your car payment, but I’m the one who takes care of your car. I change the oil, I do this, I do that. But you can’t even keep your car clean.’ I can hear him in my ear saying all those things. And he’d hide receipts if I bought something for myself. Like, I bought a winter coat, because I didn’t have one. I always made sure Kyler had everything he needed, but I wouldn’t buy anything for myself — and a lot of times, I’d feel guilty about spending money on myself and take things back. So Kyler would hide the receipts, so I couldn’t. That’s the kind of kid he was. He was my best friend, my world, my everything.”
For full story visit: http://www.westword.com/news/kyler-grabbingbear-was-murdered-by-adams-county-deputy-his-mother-says-9785735