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The parents of a 22-year-old Colorado man killed by a sheriff’s deputy while suffering a mental health crisis will get $19 million from state and local agencies and see changes in the way officers are trained, according to a settlement announced Tuesday.
The shooting death of Christian Glass after his SUV got stuck in the mountain town of Silver Plume last year drew national attention and prompted calls to reform the way authorities respond to people with mental health issues.
As part of the settlement, Sally and Simon Glass are also negotiating for changes they hope will prevent other families from suffering a loss like that. Clear Creek County will create a crisis response team and the sheriff’s office will train and certify all deputies in crisis intervention, according to documents released by attorneys.
When Glass’ parents first demanded responsibility for their son’s death last year, Sally Glass said Christian was “petrified” the night he was killed and the officers had no empathy for him.
The state of Colorado, which has three officers at the scene of the murder of Glass on June 11, 2022, in addition to local agencies, will create a virtual reality training scenario for the Colorado State Patrol based on the shooting that will focus on de-escalation in stressful situations involving officers from different agencies.
A video message from Simon and Sally Glass will also be shown to state troopers and Gaming Division officers at the start of active observer training. The program focuses on encouraging officers to intervene if they think a friend is going too far or needs to avoid an incident.
WARNING: Video contains scenes that may disturb viewers:
Body camera footage shows police interactions with 22-year-old Christian Glass before he was fatally shot in June. Glass had called 911 for help and was suffering a mental health crisis at the time.
There is no indication from the body camera footage that officers from other agencies attempted to stop the vehicle for violation before Christian Glass was shot.
Glasses’ attorney, Siddhartha H. Rathod, said he hopes hearing her story will help officers have the power to intervene if necessary.
“Each of the seven officers there can stop this just by saying something. They want to strengthen law enforcement to have this courage,” said Rathod of the shooting.
Criminal charges were filed
The settlement, which was also joined by the communities of Georgetown and Idaho Springs, is the largest for the killing of police in Colorado, the highest $ 15 million settlement made in 2021 due to the death of Elijah McClain, and also among the highest in America Union, said Rathod.
His law firm, Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, also represented the mother of McClain, a 23-year-old black man who died in 2019 after police in the Aurora suburb forced him and paramedics to inject him with the powerful sedative ketamine.
Former Clear Creek County sheriff’s deputy Andrew Buen, who was hired by Glass, and his supervisor, former Sgt. Kyle Gould, both charged in Glass’s death. A grand jury found they unnecessarily escalated the standoff after she called 911 for help. Gould was not at the scene, but watched the events caught on body camera footage and authorized officers to remove Glass from his vehicle, according to court documents.
In response to police killings of mentally ill people, reformers have pushed for crisis intervention and de-escalation training for police and even alternative policing programs where mental health responders are sent to some emergency calls instead of law enforcement.
Some cities, including Denver, have programs where EMTs and mental health doctors can be dispatched instead of police. But the area where Glass was killed, about an hour’s drive away from Denver, had no choice in time.
Glass made a heart symbol for officers
Glass, whose car was stuck on a dirt road, initially told operators he was being followed and made other claims that the allegations showed he was paranoid, hallucinating or delusional and suffering a mental health crisis.
Officers’ body camera footage showed Glass refusing to get out of the car, making a heart shape with his hands at the officer and praying: “God, please, don’t let them break the window.”
After about an hour of deliberation, officers decided to pull over the car even though there was no indication that Glass posed a danger or was suspected of a crime, according to the jury.
After the window was smashed, body camera footage shows the officer peppering Glass with a round of beans, then Tasering him. Glass brandished a knife in “a state of complete panic and self-defense” before twisting in his chair to thrust the knife in the officer’s direction, according to the grand jury. Buen then fired a fifth shot at Glass.
The grand jury found that no other officer was in “danger of being stabbed by Mr. Glass.”
“But for Gould’s decision to remove Mr. Glass from the vehicle, there was no reason to believe that Mr. Glass would pose a danger to law enforcement personnel, to himself, or to others,” the indictment said. said.
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