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In June 2022, Christian Glass called 911 for help after his car got stuck in Silver Plume. More than one hour later, he was shot by police.
CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, Colo. — A judge on Monday granted a motion to drop failure to intervene charges against two Division of Gaming officers who were among those on scene the night Christian Glass was shot and killed.
Glass, 22, called 911 for help on the night of June 22, 2022, after his SUV got stuck on a rock near Silver Plume. Two Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office deputies were the first to respond, but eventually six others showed up at intermittent times and stayed as Glass became more and more agitated.
Glass never left his car during the hourlong incident, which ended with his shooting death.
The Division of Gaming officers were among six charged with failure to intervene after none of them stepped forward to stop the situation as it escalated out of control. The other four cases, involving a Georgetown police marshal, Clear Creek County deputy, Idaho Springs police officer and Colorado State trooper, have yet to be tried.
In her ruling, Clear Creek County Court Judge Cynthia Jones said she granted to motion to drop the charges because the statute requiring “peace officers” to intervene to stop excessive force does not apply to Division of Gaming officers.
Case history
Prosecutors said Glass was experiencing a mental health crisis when he called 911 for help after he got his car stuck on a boulder in Silver Plume in June 2022. Several officers engaged with him for more than an hour. After officers unsuccessfully tried to get Glass out of his car, former Clear Creek County Deputy Andrew Buen broke Glass’ car window, shot him with bean bag rounds and used a Taser on him before shooting him five times in the chest.
In November 2022, a Clear Creek grand jury indicted Buen, alongside his supervisor, former Clear Creek deputy Kyle Gould, who wasn’t at the scene that night. According to court documents, Gould was watching the encounter with Glass via a live-streamed body-worn camera. He then gave the order for Glass’ driver’s side window to be broken out.
Buen was charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct, and reckless endangerment. In an April trial, a jury could only unanimously agree to the last, and least serious, charge. They deadlocked on the other two. Buen will go to trial again in August.
Gould pleaded guilty in November 2023 to duty to report use of force by peace officers – duty to intervene. He was sentenced to two years unsupervised probation and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. As part of the plea agreement, Gould withdrew his POST certification and cannot work as a police officer or security guard in Colorado ever again.
The DA’s office charged all six other officers on scene the night of Glass’s death for failing to intervene last November. The other cases have yet to be tried.
In May 2023, the Glass family was awarded $19 million in a settlement agreement with Clear Creek County, the Colorado State Patrol, the Georgetown Police Department and the Idaho Springs Police Department – all departments with officers on scene that night. Among the many non-economic terms of the settlement, Clear Creek County has implemented a crisis response team to respond to calls. It is the largest police misconduct settlement in Colorado history.
View a full timeline of events in this case here:
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