A $19 million settlement has been reached in the fatal police shooting of a Colorado man
The parents of a Colorado man who was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy during a mental health crisis last June will receive $19 million as part of a settlement announced Tuesday.
The man, Christian Glass, 22, was killed after calling 911 when the vehicle he was traveling in got stuck on an embankment on a mountain road near Silver Plume, about 43 miles west of Denver.
About half a dozen officers, from multiple agencies, including the Colorado State Patrol, responded after Mr. Glass told a 911 dispatcher that he was coming out of depression and needed help.
They negotiated with Mr. Glass for over an hour before the situation escalated and an officer broke the driver’s side window and ordered him to drop a knife.
Officers fired bean bags at Mr. Glass and used a stun gun on him. He then waved an arm at the broken window, in the direction of an approaching officer, and gunshots were fired, body camera footage showed.
Two Clear Creek County sheriff’s deputies, Andrew Buen and Kyle Gould, were charged in November in connection with the fatal shooting. Mr Buen was charged with manslaughter, official misconduct and reckless endangerment. Mr Gould was charged with negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. The deputies were fired.
Under the terms of the settlement announced Tuesday, Mr Glass’s parents will receive $19 million from state and local agencies, and changes will be made to how police officers are trained for similar situations, according to documents provided by the lawyers. of the family.
“It’s the largest civil rights settlement in Colorado and one of the largest in the country,” Siddhartha Rathod, one of the family’s attorneys, said Tuesday. The settlement is $4 million more than Elijah McClain’s family received in 2021. Mr McClain, a young black man, died in 2019 after being stopped by police in Aurora, Colo.
As part of the settlement, Clear Creek County has agreed to dedicate a park to Mr. Glass by January 2025 and create a dedicated crisis response team.
The Colorado State Patrol will also set up a virtual reality training scenario that mirrors the shooting, and the State Patrol and Division of Gaming will begin their statewide bystander training with a presentation from Mr. Glass, Simon and Sally Glass.
“Christian Glass should be alive today,” Mr Rathod and another lawyer for the family, Qusair Mohamedbhai, said in a statement. “This settlement sends a signal that such injustice will not be tolerated and those responsible will be held accountable – including those officers who watched and did not intervene to protect Christian.”
In a letter, the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office apologized to Mr. Glass and acknowledged that her officers “failed to live up to expectations”.
According to an autopsy report, Mr. Glass six gunshot wounds. The report also noted that THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, was in Mr. Glass’s system along with amphetamine which, according to a doctor who spoke to The Denver Postwas proportional to medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Last month, after a hearing for the former officers, Mr Glass’s parents said the men should be tried together. “They killed him together, they are being tried together,” Ms Glass said told Fox 31, a local news station. “It’s just so sad. Our son had such bad luck, such bad luck that night.”