Two former Clear Creek County sheriff’s deputies charged in the shooting death of 22-year-old Christian Glass earlier this year will appear in court this morning in Georgetown.
This is the first court appearance for former deputy Andrew Buen and his supervisor Sgt. Kyle Gould, both of whom face felony charges in Glass’s death after a grand jury indictment last month.
Buen, who fatally shot Glass after he called 911 for help after getting his car stuck, is charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct and reckless endangerment.
Gould, who the grand jury charged, gave orders for Buen to forcibly remove Glass from the front seat of his car, where he remained during the entire standoff with several law enforcement officers, faces criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. Buen posted a $50,000 bond and Gould posted a $2,500 bond.
Both men have been fired by Clear Creek Sheriff Rick Albers.
Glass’s parents will be in the courtroom and will object to any bond conditions being waived, including out-of-state travel for the holidays, said their attorney Siddhartha Rathod.
“It is tragically ironic that Officer Buen would have the audacity to ask the court to modify his bond to allow out-of-state travel so that he can be with his family when his actions have deprived Christian’s family of being with their loved one this holiday season,” Rathod said.
The family intends to sue Clear Creek County for the incident.
In June, Glass called emergency officials for help after his Honda Pilot was stuck near Silver Plume on some rocks. Glass was acting paranoid and scared and told the dispatcher that he had some geology equipment, including a small knife and a rubber mallet, in his car and that he would be happy to throw them out the window when authorities arrived.
Buen and his partner, Tim Collins, who has since resigned from the sheriff’s office, arrived first. Buen demanded Glass get out of the vehicle. Glass told him he was afraid and again offered to throw his knife and other gear out the window.
The officers declined and video shows they escalated the incident, calling for backup, and several other agencies sent officers. For more than 70 minutes, Glass refused to get out of the car, and Buen and others proceeded to break his car window, tase him and shoot him with bean bag rounds.
Eventually, Buen shot and killed Glass as he was thrashing around the front seat with the knife in his hand after being tased.
The grand jury found that Glass never posed a threat to the community, the officers or himself.
More coverage of the Clear Creek County deputies' shooting:
- After getting stuck on a dirt road in Clear Creek County in June, Christian Glass called 911 for help. Instead, the 22-year-old was killed while locked inside his own car after a long, tense, confusing and chaotic confrontation.
- The parents of Christian Glass that the fact the deputy who killed their son is back on the streets without any consequence is a stain on Colorado and a threat to everyone in the state.
- A Clear Creek undersheriff said the deputy who fatally shot Christian Glass was afraid he was going to stab a law enforcement officer out of the broken car window. Gov. Jared Polis has condemned the killing.
- PHOTOS: Christian Glass's family and about 30 community members gathered for a candlelight vigil in Idaho Springs.
- The New Zealand and British governments are asking for answers in the Clear Creek County investigation into the killing.
- The investigation into the shooting death was sent to a county grand jury near the end of October.
- Nearly a month later, the grand jury indicted two Clear Creek County sheriff’s deputies. Those two deputies were also both fired by the sheriff.
