Updated 11/24/2022 8:56 a.m.
Two Clear Creek County sheriff's deputies who responded to a man who called for help on a mountain road and ended up shooting and killing him have been criminally charged.
Christian Glass, of Boulder, died in June after Deputy Andrew Buen shot him five times from the left passenger front window and killed him. He is charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct and reckless endangerment.
Sgt. Kyle Gould, who also responded to the scene and turned off his body camera after Glass was killed, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment, according to District Attorney Heidi McCollum's office. A judge has sealed the court documents.
The court set a $50,000 bond for Buen and a $2,500 bond for Gould. It was unclear whether they have posted those bonds yet.
They were both fired by the sheriff on Wednesday.
"The shooting death of Christian Glass continues to be a devastating event for Christian's family, friends, the Clear Creek County community, and the Sheriff's Office," the Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on the firing of the two deputies. "Today's decision to indict Mr. Andrew Buen and Mr. Kyle Gould, follows months of painstaking investigation by a team of dedicated investigators and careful consideration by members of our community empaneled to serve on a Grand Jury."
Albers said he has asked the Douglas County Sheriff's Office to help conduct an internal investigation about what happened and Clear Creek's policies and procedures.
"While an internal investigation is still underway and continues, preliminary findings show there were policy and procedural failures, and the initial news release about the shooting, based on the information available at the time of the incident, does not reflect the entirety of what happened on that terrible night," the statement said.
The original rendition of what happened released by the sheriff's deputies in June said that Glass attempted to stab deputies, even though body camera footage released by his family's lawyers show he never tried to get out of his own car.
The case was sent to a county grand jury in October by Clear Creek County District Attorney Heidi McCollum. The case has gained international attention — as well as condemnation from Gov. Jared Polis. Glass was a citizen of New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Glass had called 911 for help after his car got stuck on a dirt road in Clear Creek County last June. The 22-year-old was shot and killed by Buen while locked inside his own car after a long, tense, confusing and chaotic confrontation with Clear Creek deputies and a handful of other agencies.
“You’re sending someone right? You tracked my location? My car is stuck under a bush," Glass told a 911 dispatcher. "I love you. You’re my light right now. I’m really scared. I’m sorry.”
A Boulder County resident, Glass was an amateur geologist and had some knives and a hammer in his car from a recent trip to Utah. Glass informed the dispatcher of the knives in the car as well as the deputies when they showed up at the scene.
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.
While speaking with the dispatcher, Glass offered to throw them outside when officers arrived. He repeated that offer again to officers when they did arrive.
Deputies said they didn’t want him to throw the weapons out of the car and instead demanded that he get out of the car. Glass told officers with his hands up that he didn’t feel safe getting out of the car. He took the keys out of the ignition and put them on the dashboard and told them he was scared and wanted to stay in the car.
Glass was never suspected of any crime.
The Glass family contends their son was experiencing a mental health crisis when officers contacted him in June.
“Please push me out, drag me out, I’ll follow you to a police station,” Glass told the officers. “I’m so scared.”
The case received little attention until lawyers hired by the family released body camera footage in September to reporters and said they intended to eventually file a lawsuit against Clear Creek County.
This story will be updated.
