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‘I’m thankful for my life’: Woman shot inside CSPD vehicle pleads guilty to resisting arrest

A woman shot by Colorado Springs police accepted a plea agreement on Monday that sentenced her to two years of probation and 30 days in jail for resisting arrest and third-degree motor vehicle theft.

Micaela Pasillas, 30, said in her guilty pleas to the El Paso County judge that she knowingly attempted to drive away the police vehicle she was shot three times in after kicking an officer while in the driver’s seat. Her attorney ascribed the incident to Pasillas going through a mental health episode.

“I’m just thankful I’m alive and I want to tell them I am sorry, it’s not going to happen again, I respect the law and I’m sorry,” Pasillas said with emotion in her voice inside the El Paso County courtroom Monday. “I’m thankful for my life.”

Officers had been dispatched to the intersection of Marion Drive and Delaware Drive on Jan. 31 after a report of a disturbance involving a weapon and arrived to find Pasillas armed with a knife that was allegedly swung toward a person in their vehicle.

Limited body camera footage released by police in February showed an unarmed Pasillas running away from police before entering the police vehicle for an unknown reason, according to previous reporting by The Gazette.

A screenshot of a body worn camera by a CSPD officer showing Micaela Pasillas in the front seat of a police vehicle on Jan. 31, 2026. (Courtesy of the Colorado Springs Police Department)

One officer attempted to pull Pasillas out of the vehicle by her feet as she kicked and allegedly grabbed a shotgun, prompting Officer James Mckinstry to shoot her three times from the passenger side of the vehicle.

The 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has yet to determine whether Mckinstry’s actions were lawful.

Pasillas admitted in court Monday to running from police, discarding a knife and getting into the police vehicle before she was shot and tased.

However, the judge initially told Pasillas she could not accept her plea because Pasillas told the judge she was “not really planning” to steal the police vehicle, in providing a factual basis for the pleas.

After consulting with her attorney, Pasillas told the judge she intended to drive away the vehicle.

The plea agreement dismisses the charges against Pasillas of felony menacing, second-degree assault on a peace officer and obstructing a peace officer.

Furthermore, the agreement stipulates that Pasillas must also undergo mental health evaluations, among various other conditions, under her new probation sentence.

The prosecutor, who described the incident as a “dangerous set of circumstances all around,” will make a filing for restitution for the officer who was kicked within 63 days.

Pasillas was the second person shot by a Colorado Springs police officer this year.

A shooting between police and Michael Foster in February left an officer injured and hospitalized the man with life-threatening injuries, according to previous Gazette reporting. Foster will make his first appearance in the case in an El Paso County courtroom on Tuesday.

The 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has not determined the legality of the officers’ use of force in that incident yet, either.



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