Mr. Glass twisted in his seat and swung an arm at the broken window, toward an approaching officer, and gunshots were fired, the videos show. An autopsy report said Mr. Glass had six gunshot wounds. The report also noted that THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, was in Mr. Glass’s system, along with amphetamine that, according to a doctor who spoke to The Denver Post, was commensurate with medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Mr. Buen was initially placed on administrative leave after the shooting, pending the outcome of an investigation, and was back working in September, Bruce Snelling, the undersheriff at the time, told The New York Times that month. Mr. Buen had been on the force for about five or six years, most recently in the patrol division, and had no record of disciplinary issues, Undersheriff Snelling said.
On Wednesday, after the indictment was made public, the Clear Creek Sheriff’s Office moved swiftly to fire Mr. Buen and Mr. Gould, even though an investigation of the shooting by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office had not concluded.
“While the investigation is still underway,” the office said in its statement, “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.”
At a news conference in September, Mr. Glass’s mother, Sally Glass, said that her son loved to take long drives in the mountains, that he was an artist and that he was struggling with his mental health the night he was killed.
“He was just too scared to get out of his car,” she said.
In a statement responding to the indictment, the family’s lawyers said Mr. Glass’s parents were “relieved appropriate charges have been brought against some of those responsible for the murder of their son.”
“However, justice for Christian will require all those involved being held accountable,” the statement said. “Christian’s death is a stain on every officer who was present and failed to prevent the escalation and unnecessary uses of force.”