GEORGETOWN — Simon Glass plugged his ears with his fingers when his son’s voice — recorded in a 911 call in the final hours of his life — echoed across a Clear Creek County courtroom Friday.
He sat arm-in-arm with his wife, Sally Glass, as prosecutors and defense attorneys offered opening statements in the jury trial for former Clear Creek County Deputy Sheriff Andrew Buen, who shot and killed their son, 22-year-old Christian Glass, in June 2022 after Glass called 911 for help during a mental health crisis.
Fifth Judicial District Attorney Heidi McCollum argued in opening statements that Buen’s actions that night were “aggressive, excessive and criminal,” and said he never should have shot and killed Glass, who posed no threat to officers.
Buen’s attorney, Carrie Slinkard, focused on what she said was a shoddy law enforcement investigation and suggested investigators ignored evidence Glass was under the influence of drugs in order to build a case against Buen, who is charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct and reckless endangerment in Glass’ death.
“Andrew Buen shot a frightened, scared Christian Glass while he was in his car not harming anyone,” McCollum told jurors.
“I can confidently tell you that they have not done their job,” Slinkard said of investigators.
Buen, 30, who was fired from his job as a Clear Creek County deputy after he was indicted, sat quietly with his attorneys during the opening statements, often taking notes. Christian Glass’ parents sat nearby in the front row. Sally Glass put her head down and wept as prosecutors described the moment Buen shot and killed her son.
Prosecutors say Glass was experiencing a mental health crisis when he called 911 on the night of June 10, 2022, and asked for help because he’d crashed his car into a rock in Clear Creek County and was stuck. He told the dispatcher that he was afraid of “skinwalkers” and people chasing him.
Seven law enforcement officers responded and spent more than an hour trying to coax Glass out of the car while he was experiencing delusions and paranoia. Glass told the 911 dispatcher that he was not dangerous, but did have two knives and a rubber mallet in the car with him. Glass at one point offered to throw the knives out of his car, but Buen told him not to.
Eventually, the officers decided to break Glass’ window and pull him from the car, even though Glass was not suspected of a crime. One mentioned it was “time to move the night on.”
As they did so, Glass grabbed a knife and officers fired a Taser at him and shot him with beanbags in an attempt to force him to drop it. Instead, Glass twisted in the driver’s seat and thrust the knife toward an officer standing next to the shattered window behind him, prompting Buen to shoot him five times. Glass then stabbed himself several times.
A grand jury later found Glass committed no crime, acted in panic and self-defense before he was killed, and that he never actually came close to stabbing the officers. The involved law enforcement agencies agreed to a $19 million settlement with Glass’ parents in May.
On Friday, Slinkard suggested Glass was not, in fact, experiencing a mental health crisis, but rather was acting strangely because he was on drugs. She showed jurors photos of pipes and marijuana accessories that were found in Glass’s vehicle and spent most of her opening statement discussing ways in which she thought the investigation into the night’s events fell short.
Although there is no dispute that Buen shot Glass, she questioned why prosecutors did not investigate Glass for careless driving or driving under the influence.
“He’s definitely high, but we don’t even know what he was high on because they haven’t bothered to look into it,” she told jurors.
Glass’s autopsy shows he had a blood alcohol content of .01, and had marijuana and amphetamine in his system when he died.
McCollum told jurors not to be distracted by the defense’s focus on “tangential” issues and encouraged jurors to instead examine Buen’s actions once he arrived at the scene of the car crash.
“Nearly everything he did that evening escalated the situation, leading to Christian Glass’ death,” she said.
Fifteen jurors were seated for the trial, with 13 women and two men. Buen is one of eight law enforcement officers to be charged with crimes in connection with Glass’s death. He faces up to 24 years in prison if convicted.
Buen’s supervisor, former Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kyle Gould, was not there during the incident but watched live-streamed video from the deputies’ body cameras and gave Buen permission to break into Glass’ car. Gould pleaded guilty to failing to intervene in the excessive force of another officer in November and was sentenced to two years of probation. He also agreed to never again work as a law enforcement officer.
The other six officers who were there that night were charged with failing to intervene in the excessive force of another officer on the same day as Gould’s guilty plea. Those cases are ongoing.
Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.
