Colorado Springs Firefighter accused of assaulting wife

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Lucas Wardell, a training lieutenant for the Colorado Springs Fire Department is facing assault charges after arrest papers say he assaulted his wife.

The long time firefighter, who started with the department in 2003, has been placed on unpaid administrative leave as he faces felony menacing and assault charges.

The first sentence of the arrest affidavit says that alcohol was a factor in the incident. The alleged domestic violence episode reportedly stared at a neighbor’s house after Wardell and his wife returned from drinking at a bar with those neighbors.

The papers claim Wardell was angered after his wife sat on her friend’s husband’s lap. When the couple went home, an argument reportedly started almost immediately. Wardell allegedly held his wife against the wall before going upstairs and throwing three of her dresser drawers down the staircase.

The argument allegedly escalated even further when Wardell, according to the arrest papers, held a gun to his wife’s head. When she testified to police she claimed Wardell told her he would “Take her and him out and it would be over.”

Later, when Wardell was questioned by police he told them he told them he said “If we’re going to be so unhappy, we can just kill us both and be done.”

I went to Wardell’s house to ask him for a statement but he drove away almost instantly. I did speak to a neighbor who told me “Every time I would see him it would be very friendly” and “They seemed to get along just fine. We would have them over for neighborhood barbecues or whatever. Everything always seemed OK. There was never really any tension. It always just seemed like playful banter. So I never really saw anything.”

Wardell’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 20th.

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