Ex-Denver cop helps find fugitive who shot him in 1971

Former Denver Police Department Officer Daril Cinquanta still vividly remembers the day he was shot in the stomach by Luis Archuleta in a neighborhood on the northside of the city in 1971.

He has also never stopped trying to track down Archuleta, 77, after he escaped custody in 1974.

With Cinquanta’s help, Archuleta was arrested by the FBI and Española police in New Mexico Wednesday – where he had been living as a fugitive for more than 40 years under the name Ramon Montoya, the FBI said in a release. He has also gone by the name Lawrence Pusateri.

Archuleta, who has been wanted by the FBI since 1977 when a federal arrest warrant was issued, will be returned to Colorado where he could face additional charges.

“I have never given up on him,” Cinquanta, who retired in 1990, told Denver’s FOX 31 Thursday. “It just shows you, persistence does pay off.”

Cinquanta told the station searching for Archuleta for all these years was like a “hobby” for him.