Denver-a former deputy of the Colorado Sheriff convicted of killing a 22-year-old man who called 911 for help was sentenced on Monday to three years in prison, the maximum sentence, by a judge who said the shooting was about power.
Andrew Buen was convicted in February of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Christian Glass of 2022, which attracted national attention and caused calls to reform how the authorities responded to people with mental health problems.
The prosecutors alleged that good unnecessarily intensified a confrontation with Glass, which showed signs of a mental health crisis and rejected the orders of leaving its SUV near Silver Plume, a small mining city along the interest 70 in the rocky mountains west of Denver.
His parents and the agencies involved reached a $ 19 million agreement that included training in crisis intervention for officers who responded to people in danger.
Judge Catherine Cheroutes said that the good judgment should address both the loss of glass and the damage caused to the community by the shooting.
“I think it was power. It was not a mistake. It was, ‘you need to listen to me because I am in charge,” he said. She said she believed that the family and good supporters was that he was a “type of type of back”, but said he acted differently when he put on a uniform and had a gun.
Good, with an orange jail uniform, he apologized with the glass family, rubbing his eyes with a handkerchief with handcuffs while talking on a podium.
Glass’s family had questioned if any remorse could show would be sincere. Good, his trembling voice, he said they had every right to feel as they do. He said his actions had intensified the confrontation and told the judge that he was not “due” nothing.
“There are a million things that should have done better that night,” he said before being sentenced.
Sally Glass told Ceroutes that good had acted as a “thug” towards his son, a creative and gentle artist who was born in his father’s native, New Zealand.
“He met evil that night and there was no compassion,” he said.
Simon Glass said that his family’s pain was aggravated at the beginning by the authorities that initially described his son as the aggressor in the confrontation, whereby the Sheriff’s office later apologized. He said he fights with anxiety and has trouble referring to his son in the past tense, but it is comforted that his son’s name has been clear, partly due to the images of the body of the body.
Katie Glass said she and her mother always try to drive below the speed limit to avoid being detained by the police. She said she regrets having seen the footage of the body of the body showing the final moments of her older brother.
“He died terrified, with pain and alone. That is what hurts me the most,” he said.
Good, former deputy in Clear Creek County, was convicted after a second trial.
Almost a year ago, another jury condemned him for a minor crime to endanger other officers recklessly opening fire. However, jury members could not agree on a murder position or a position of official misconduct.
With the support of the Glass family, prosecutors decided to try goodly with a second degree murder position. The jurors also had the option to condemn him for the least serious position of criminally negligent homicide.
The defense argued that Glass had a knife and good was legally justified by shooting him to protect an official partner.
After his SUV stuck, Glass told a 911 dispatcher that he was being followed. He also made other statements suggesting that he was paranoid, hallucinating or delusional and experiencing a mental health crisis, according to the accusation of good.
When good and other officers arrived, Glass refused to leave. The video recorded by the chambers of the officers’ body showed it by making heart shapes with the hands for the officers.
The officers fired rounds of bean bags and shocked the glass with a taser, but that could not make it come out of the car. Then he took a knife that he had offered to surrender to the beginning of the match and threw it out of a rear window, which had been broken by a bean bag, towards an officer, according to the accusation. At that time, good shot him five times.
“Lord, listen to me, sir, listen to me,” Glass was heard saying moments before he was shot.
