Prosecutors in Colorado are looking into the June fatal police shooting of a 22-year-old man armed with a knife who had called 911 for roadside assistance, officials and family attorneys said.
The Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office received a “motorist assist” call on June 10 at 11:21 p.m., the sheriff’s office said in a news release. Responding deputies found a car that appeared to be in an accident along with its driver.
“The driver and sole passenger, an adult white male, immediately became belligerent and uncooperative with deputies and armed himself with a knife,” the news release from the sheriff’s office said.
“Additional police officers arrived and for over an hour tried to bring the situation to a peaceful resolution. Deputies were able to break the windows of the car and remove a knife. The suspect re-armed himself with a rock and a second knife.”
Christian Glass, of Boulder, Colorado, was involved in an accident on the side of the road, called 911 for help and was “fully confined to his vehicle and presented no threat,” according to his family.
At a news conference Tuesday, Glass’ parents said their son was not carrying weapons and that the knives were rock tools used to carve rocks as an art form.
In the audio of the 911 call released by the family, Glass tells the dispatcher “I have a gun on me. I’m going to throw them out the window as soon as an officer gets here,” and goes on to describe that he has two knives, a hammer and a rubber mallet.
Body camera video of the incident released by the family shows Glass offering to throw the weapons from the car and an officer telling him not to.
“He actually offered to throw his rock knives and tools out the window so they wouldn’t worry. But they told him no and he obeyed,” said Glass’ mother, Sally Glass.
CNN has reached out to the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office for additional information about the duty status of the officers and deputies involved. CNN also requested an unedited copy of the body camera footage from the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office.
In the video, responding deputies can be heard asking Glass to exit the vehicle several times.
A responding officer asks Glass if he had taken drugs, to which Glass replies “I smoked, I was…” before being distracted by an officer placing what the family’s attorneys said was duct tape on the back of his car, it shows the video.
The autopsy report released by attorneys for the Glass family said Glass had both THC and amphetamine in his system.
Deputies were able to break the windows of the car and remove one of the knives, but Glass re-armed himself with a rock and a second knife, according to the sheriff’s office. In the video, deputies can be heard repeatedly asking Glass to drop the knife.
Deputies deployed bean bags and a taser “with negative results” before Glass “ultimately attempted to stab an officer,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Body camera video shows law enforcement then shoot Glass with a stun gun before he is seen twisting and then apparently thrusting a knife at an officer before police fire multiple shots. The video then shows Glass stabbing himself.
The body camera footage released by the family’s attorneys has been edited to blur Glass’ body.
“The only thing we have edited from the videos is after Christian was removed from the car. We blur the screen where his body is on the ground and medical treatment is given to his body. We felt it was not appropriate to have Christian’s naked body out there in the world,” said lawyer Siddartha Rathod.
Glass — who was shot early on the morning of June 11, more than an hour after police first arrived — was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. The autopsy report indicated that Glass’ injuries were fatal and included five gunshots to the torso and one to his right arm.
Meanwhile, Glass’s family and lawyers said he had a mental health episode.
“There was no reason to threaten him with violence. to design weapons; break the window of his car; to fire rounds at close range. to taste him? to shoot him dead. From start to finish, the officers on the scene acted callously and inhumanely,” Glass’ parents and attorneys said in a press release.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident, and the deputy who fired his gun and killed Glass has been placed on administrative leave, according to the sheriff’s office.
“This incident remains under investigation. Following the initial presentation of the case to the 5th Judicial District Office, CBI Investigative Agents continue to provide additional follow-up to allow the DA’s Office to conduct a full evaluation of the facts surrounding the incident,” the Colorado Bureau of Investigation told the CNN in a statement.
In their release Tuesday, the 5th District Attorney’s Office said it has contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI’s Denver Division about the case.
“We are working diligently to thoroughly review the evidence in this case,” said 5th District Attorney Heidi McCollum. “When a peace officer shoots and injures or kills a person in Colorado, there are specific protocols for investigating and reviewing such matters.”
The office is ordered to release a report or present the case to a grand jury “to further investigate or decide whether charges should be issued,” McCollum said.
“I will make public my decision on the action this office will take once the review process and a full and thorough investigation is complete,” McCollum said. “While we understand that public sentiment may wish for this process to proceed at a faster pace, it is not in the interests of justice and fairness for the victim’s family to rush the matter to a close.”
