A jury Tuesday convicted a Colorado Springs man of trying to kill a police officer with a bullet that pierced the officer’s skull, inflicting brain injuries that hospitalized him for months.

Karrar Noaman Al Khammasi, 34, was found guilty in an Aug. 2, 2018, attack in the city’s Knob Hill neighborhood that ended former Colorado Springs Police Officer Cem Duzel’s policing career and left him with permanent deficits.

The panel convicted the defendant of attempted murder of a police officer, menacing, illegal possession of a weapon and five more counts plus sentence enhancers, court records show.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 19 by 4th Judicial District Judge Jann DuBois. The defendant, who remains held at the El Paso County jail, will get a mandatory prison term of between 16-48 years on the attempted murder charge, and other convictions could extend his penalty.

The guilty verdicts capped a trial that began June 10, after repeated delays over the coronavirus pandemic and a fight over Al Khammasi’s mental state, which ended with DuBois finding him competent for trial.

The panel acquitted him of an attempted murder count alleging that he didn’t care whom he wounded when he opened fire — instead convicting him of intentionally wounding Duzel.

The trial was pending in Colorado Springs when news broke of a shooting in Arvada that killed 19-year Arvada police veteran Gordon Beesley, a fresh reminder of the dangers faced by police. Two other people, a bystander and the gunman, were also killed, authorities said.

According to prosecutors, Khammasi shot Duzel while drunkenly shooting at police after he was kicked out of an Uber car for being “handsy.”

Duzel and other officers were responding to reports of shots fired in a neighborhood east of the Olympic Training Center when they encountered Khammasi in the 2300 block of East Boulder Street, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.

The bullet caused a serious brain injury that sent Duzel to a Denver brain injury clinic for months. Al Khammasi was wounded in the arm or shoulder and recovered.

KRDO news footage taken after the verdict shows Duzel was present for the verdict. He can be seen outside the courtroom walking unassisted but with a slight limp, his brown hair still short over the scars spanning his scalp.

The officer’s recovery was previously highlighted in November 2019, when he walked across a stage at a police ceremony just more than a year after the shooting to accept a Medal of Valor award, the department’s highest honor. 

Khammasi, who came to the United States as an Iraqi refugee, had been slated for deportation in 2016, until a change in immigration law meant that a prior felony trespassing conviction was no longer grounds for removal, federal officials said.

He lived in the Pikes Peak region for at least five years prior to the shooting and had at least nine contacts with police in that time, according to court records.

Colorado Springs police officer Cem Duzel leads in a procession of 31 medal recipients during the annual Medal of Valor luncheon at The Broadmoor on Nov. 18, 2019. While on duty in 2018, Duzel was shot in the head. Duzel was a recipient of two awards, the Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart.

(Gazette file photo)

Karrar Al Khammasi