A man leaving the scene of a car wreck Tuesday shot his way into the Colorado Supreme Court building and inflicted “extensive damage” to the building before being arrested by police, authorities said, adding the incident seems unrelated to the court's recent ruling banning former President Donald Trump from the ballot.
Colorado's justices have received threats ever since they ruled 4-3 last month that a rarely used constitutional provision barring from office those who “engaged in insurrection” applies to Trump. Authorities, however, said Tuesday's incident appears unrelated to that case. Trump is expected to appeal that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court later Tuesday.
“The CSP and DPD are treating this incident seriously, but at this time, it is believed that this is not associated with previous threats to the Colorado Supreme Court Justices,” the Colorado State Patrol said in a statement said, using the acronyms for the state patrol and Denver Police Department.
The car wreck occurred just by the building in downtown Denver at 1:15 a.m., after which a man identified by police as Brandon Olsen, 43, pointed a handgun at the driver of the other car, police records show. Olsen then shot his way through a window at the seven-story Ralph Carr Colorado Justice Center, which houses the state's Supreme Court and several other courtrooms and administrative offices, shortly thereafter and entered, authorities said.
Police said Olsen held up an unarmed security guard and got a key that let him into the rest of the building. He made his way to the seventh floor, where he fired further shots and apparently set a fire, triggering the fire extinguishers, according to the Denver Police affidavit signed in support of his arrest.
At 3 a.m., Olsen called 911 and voluntarily surrendered to police, the document says. Authorities say no one in the building was injured.
Several hours after the crash, a large shattered window could be seen on the ground floor of the building, with glass spilled out on the sidewalk along a busy street downtown. A state patrol trooper guarded it.
The state patrol is responsible for security at the building and other neighboring state buildings like the Capitol. The patrol has said it has increased security for the Supreme Court justices since their ruling but declined to detail how. It said its security officers at the entrances to state buildings are unarmed but can call armed state patrol officers stationed nearby for help.
“They work in tandem,” state patrol spokesperson Trooper Gabriel Moltrer said.
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