One of the country’s top use-of-force experts testified Thursday that a former Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office deputy and a team of six other on-scene officers did just about everything wrong during a confrontation the night Christian Glass was shot and killed.
Andy Buen, who shot Glass five times with a handgun, was one of the first officers to respond to his panicked 911 call June 10, 2022.
Buen is on trial for second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and professional misconduct. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Six other officers who were on scene have been charged with failure to stop the incident as it was happening. Buen's supervisor, Kyle Gould, took a plea deal last November, was sentenced to two years' unsupervised probation and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.
Gould was directing Buen and the others from his house, watching the body-worn camera.
Buen’s colleague, Clear Creek County sheriff deputy Tim Collins, arrived on scene early on and immediately assured Glass, who prosecutors said was suffering a mental health breakdown, that he was not going to be shot.
Buen, who was 28-years-old at the time of the incident, took the on-the-ground lead in what would become a 70-minute standoff, which ended tragically when he broke Glass’ driver side window, shot six bean bag rounds at him, tased him and shot him five times through the front windshield, killing him.
Every one of Buen's use-of-force decisions only made the situation worse, Seth Stoughton testified, because Glass “largely sat in the vehicle and the vehicle was not going anywhere.”
Thus, Stoughton said, Glass was “about the most minor imminent threat we can define in policing. Use of force is about balancing the officers’ actions against the subject’s actions.”
His 93-page report was based on three police body-worn camera angles, evidence photos, Glass' autopsy report, the 911 call and various law enforcement training and policy records.
Risk soup
Buen was not the only officer who miscued that night, Stoughton said.
He identified many problems with the way Glass’ reported mental health crisis was handled on June 10-11, including the fact that seven officers from various agencies arrived at different times and circled the vehicle shining their flashlights into Glass' eyes and drawing their weapons.
Further, former Georgetown Police Chief Randy Williams’ decision to use a second taser on Glass after Buen’s equipment didn’t fire was also counter-productive and inconsistent with police principles, Stoughton said.
Williams' taser round caused Glass to scream, flail his arms, and even threaten to kill the officers. It was yet another mistake made in a night Stoughton described was a situation where “officers are constantly swimming in a potential for danger.”
He called the encounter a "risk soup."
A tactical mistake
From the first minutes, Buen was determined to get Glass out of his SUV, which was high-centered on a rock just outside of Silverplume.
This was a tactical mistake, Stoughton said, because Glass was scared. Knowing his mental state, Buen should have been discussing whether Glass should be put on a mental health hold, according to Stoughton.
Instead, Buen demanded for Glass to get out of the vehicle, tried the car door, tapped on the window and eventually ordered Collins to stand on the hood. Collins further agitated Glass when he pointed a shotgun directly at him.
Stoughton said that it’s rare for a police officer to stand on the hood of a car, referring to the action as an “officer-created jeopardy.”
Though the testimony was intense and complex, jurors appeared to be intently listening to Stoughton's analysis. He was the star witness instrumental in the conviction of former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin, convicted of killing George Floyd in May 2020. A former police officer, Stoughton is now a law professor at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law.
During juror questioning, Stoughton said there is little research that focuses on policing in rural areas.
Under the influence or mental breakdown?
After an afternoon break, Buen's attorney Carrie Slinkard challenged the idea that officers knew that Glass was having a mental health crisis, pointing out that he had drug paraphernalia in his 2007 Honda Pilot and may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. She suggested that if he were drunk or high, then it was Buen's duty to order him out of the car to investigate his behavior.
Glass' refusal to leave the car could be seen as non-compliance, Slinkard said.
Officers had no way of knowing for sure whether Glass was under the influence unless he stepped out of the car. The autopsy found that Glass' blood alcohol level was 0.010, along with some Delta-9 TCH in his system and evidence of amphetamines.
Slinkard also has indicated that several tools which he had in his vehicle associated with rock collecting were a threat to police as potential weapons.
Stoughton countered this was not a reasonable assumption because the windows were rolled up.
”Crystals, rocks and knives are melee weapons and not a danger because he was enclosed inside of the car," he said.
Two of the seven officers on scene said that they were afraid for Williams' life when Glass waved a knife at him. Williams himself said he was afraid of being stabbed, but not fatally, according to Stoughton's report.
As Stoughton wrapped up his testimony, he said officers could have found other ways to get Glass out of his car besides "going kinetic."
Those solutions included bringing in a negotiator, cycling in extra officers, or using pepper spray in the car, he said. Every situation is different and police have to be ready to adapt.
"Sometimes people walk out of a barricaded situation for a pizza," he said.
The trail, which started April 12, continues Friday.
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