Armed man breaks into Colorado Supreme Court building, causes ‘significant and extensive’ damage

DENVER — A man shot through a window and broke into the Colorado Supreme Court building early Tuesday, causing “significant and extensive” damage in several areas of the building before surrendering to police, authorities said.

Brandon Olsen, 44, faces charges of arson, robbery and burglary in connection with the incident, according to the Denver Police Department. He is accused of holding a security guard at gunpoint and starting a fire on the seventh floor of the building.

The incident happened two weeks to the day after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump could not appear on the state’s primary ballot based on his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach and the riot by his supporters. Colorado State Patrol officials said in a news release that Tuesday’s incident is not believed to be “associated with previous threats to the Colorado Supreme Court justices.”

Police were investigating threats made to the Supreme Court justices in the week after the ruling and increased patrols around their Denver homes following at least one “hoax report,” the Associated Press reported.

Tuesday’s incident began when Olsen was involved in a car crash at about 1:15 a.m. near 13th Avenue and Lincoln Street, outside the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center, according to an affidavit provided by Denver police. Olsen grabbed a pistol from the back seat of his vehicle and ran from the crash, according to the affidavit.

Police said he then shot through a first-floor window of the judicial center, which houses the Colorado Supreme Court, the Colorado Court of Appeals and several other state agencies, and forced his way inside.

An unarmed security guard with Colorado State Patrol’s Capitol Security Unit went to investigate the noise of the break-in and encountered Olsen as the man tried to kick open an interior door, according to the affidavit. Olsen could not get the door open, and the security guard offered to let him through with his master key, according to the affidavit.

The security guard was “nervous and shaking,” and couldn’t get the key to work, so Olsen grabbed the keys and opened the door himself, according to the affidavit. The security guard then ran away and called 911.

Olsen accessed an unknown number of floors in the courthouse, then made his way to the seventh floor and fired additional shots inside the building, CSP officials said. Police later found two bullet holes in windows on the seventh floor, as well as a semi-automatic pistol on a conference room table.

Olsen is also accused of starting a fire on the seventh floor. Firefighters responded to the building for a small fire that was extinguished by the building’s sprinklers, Denver Fire Department spokesman JD Chism said. The blaze was “confined and fairly small,” he said, and did not spread throughout the building. The cause of the fire is under investigation, he added.

There was standing water on the seventh floor after the sprinklers went off, according to the affidavit, and officers found burned papers in the water.

Olsen called 911 at 3 a.m. and surrendered to police, who had surrounded the building. No one was hurt during the incident. One other person was in the building at the time and left when the fire alarm went off; she did not see Olsen.

Olsen spoke with police about the incident, but the department redacted his statements from the public affidavit, and it is not clear what he said or whether he offered a motive for the incursion.

Olsen has been arrested several times in Colorado over the last decade, court records show. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft in 2014, and was arrested on drug charges in 2011 and 2013. In the 2011 incident, he pleaded guilty to felony vehicular eluding and several other charges against him were dismissed, including possessing methamphetamine and having an open container of alcohol in the car.

The judicial center will be closed for some time because of “significant water damage,” said Colorado Judicial Department spokesman Jon Sarché.

Colorado State Patrol’s security guard unit is separate from its troopers. The agency’s unarmed security guards are not certified law enforcement officers and can be as young as 18, while troopers, who carry guns, must be at least 21 and be certified by the Colorado Peace Officers Standard and Training Board, Trooper Gabriel Moltrer said Tuesday.

The security guards patrol a variety of state buildings, Moltrer said. He was not sure whether troopers were stationed at the buildings overnight as well.