He called 911 and police killed him: Jury deadlocked on murder charges for officer who shot Christian Glass
The former deputy who shot and killed Christian Glass after the 22-year-old called 911 for help after being stuck on a road has been found guilty of reckless endangerment — but the jury was hung on high charges of murder and misconduct.
His mother, Sally Glass subtly shook her head in the front row of the courtroom galley as a Colorado judge discharged the 12 jurors who found Andrew Buen, the man who fatally shot her son, guilty of reckless endangerment – but could not come to a decision on the second-degree murder and 1st-degree official misconduct charges against him.
She clasped hands with supporters behind her as she sat stoically next to her husband, Simon, as the court heard the verdict.
Clear Creek County District Attorney Heidi McCollum told reporters outside the court that her office was still deciding whether to retry Buen on the other charges. He is next due in court again on Monday for discussions about sentencing and procedure going forward.
It was a verdict that came after nearly two years of a painful struggle for justice by the Glass parents, who were determined to not only set the record straight about their son’s killing but also fight for changes – in the hopes of saving other families from similar agony. They never expected to be put in this position; from England and New Zealand respectively, they’d always had utter faith in the police — until they were notified in June 2022 about their son’s killing.
Their efforts already resulted in apologies and a $19m settlement from Colorado agencies, the largest in state history, which also mandates enhanced crisis response and de-escalation training for law enforcement.
As they stood outside the courthouse this week, Sally and Simon were 3.5 miles away from the sleepy site on an unpaved mountain road in Silver Plume, a tiny old mining town with little more than a few homes, a coffee shop and a handwritten ‘Kids & Dogs’ sign greeting visitors off the highway. Christian became stuck there on rocks there late at night on 10 June 2022, calling 911 for help when he couldn’t move his vehicle in the deep rural darkness at an elevation of more than 9,000 feet.
During the phone conversation, he appeared to be suffering some type of crisis and not making sense, mentioning things like folkloric figures and possibly following a car. When asked if he had weapons in the vehicle, the amateur geologist responded that he had two knives, a hammer and mallet that could be considered weapons, offering to throw them out of the car. Dispatch sent officers on a motorist assist call.
Buen and his shift partner, Tim Collins, were first to arrive, and bodycam footage shows Christian telling the pair that he is scared – but Buen almost immediately begins ordering him aggressively out of the car. When Christian again offers to throw the knives and items from the vehicle, Buen barks at him not to. For more than an hour, as Clear Creek officers are joined by five other officers from four different agencies, various gentler tactics are made to remove Christian from the agency; he repeatedly makes heart signs with his hands, and much of the bodycam footage shows officers just chatting and milling around.
The vibe instantly and almost incomprehensibly changes after an hour, however, when Buen – who’d earlier obtained permission from his remote supervisor to breach the vehicle – leads an intensified effort to do so. Christian panics and becomes more agitated as officers swarm the vehicle, shouting. He screams and writhes as they deploy bean bag rounds and tasers, breaking the window behind Christian in the driver’s seat; he picks up a knife he’d repeatedly offered to throw out and thrashes towards the window behind him.
Buen fires five shots into the car and kills him.
Buen was later charged with second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and official misconduct; he pleaded not guilty. His remote supervisor, Sgt Kyle Gould, pleaded to a lesser charge of duty to intervene and his been stripped of his peace officer certification in Colorado. Both were terminated by Clear Creek following the charges.
The six other officers who responded to Christian’s 911 call have also been charged with duty to intervene.
Jurors began deliberations on Wednesday in Buen’s trial after hearing more than a week of evidence from prosecutors and defense attorneys. The county courthouse in Georgetown is tiny, adjacent to the sheriff’s office and jail — along with the two-cell two-cell old stone jail dating back to 1883 abutting the street with an historic plaque. All of that is directly across from the district attorney’s office in a town known mainly for a tourist train and Guanella Pass; some homes are older than the state itself.
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