First known case of red flag law filed in Denver

DENVER, Colo. -- The first known case using Colorado's new red flag law is headed to court later this month, report our news partners at 9News.

The red flag law, or "Extreme Risk Protection Orders" law, allows a person to petition the court to remove someone's firearms, if the petitioner believes that those firearms may be a threat to the owner or others. A judge then rules on the petition.

According to 9News, a Denver Probate Court judge approved a hearing Friday after a Denver Police Sergeant filed the temporary extreme risk protection order petition on Jan. 2.

However, this case is not one of guns being taken away from an individual. These guns are already in possession of the Denver Police Department after a man voluntarily turned them over to DPD during a domestic violence investigation.

Thus, this petition is requesting that the guns be prevented from being returned to their owner. The officer who filed the petition, Sergeant Troy Bisgard, said in a statement that the owner had "made suicidal statements regarding a firearm" during the domestic violence investigation, according to 9News.

According to the petition, DPD was investigating a domestic violence call the night of Dec. 29 when they made contact with a 26-year-old man.

The man was visibly intoxicated and had a cut over his eye. During a pat-down search, officers found a loaded 9mm Glock semi-automatic handgun in the man's waistband. The man told officers that the cut was "from him falling down and his gun was because he was going to 'off' himself after getting into an argument with his wife and her sister."

The man later changed his story, saying that his wife had hit him in the face with a bottle, cutting him.

Bisgard wrote in the petition that the man said "he hit her back a 'couple of times.'"

The man's wife was taken into custody for second degree assault. She was interviewed the next day and told detectives that she and her husband had gotten into an argument. She said that her husband pushed her and her sister out of the apartment, and locked the door behind them.

She banged on the door until her husband opened it which is when he "reached out and began to strangle her to the point of almost blacking out." She hit him to defend herself and went back inside, according to 9News.

The petition says that the man "grabbed his Glock 9mm handgun and pointed it in the direction of [his wife] and her sister. He said it was not for them, rather it was for himself." 

The man also gave up a second gun to officers, a .45 caliber Springfield semi-automatic weapon. Currently, both guns are in the Denver Police Property Bureau, reports 9News.

On the petition, Bisgard checked the box next to the line: "There has been a credible threat of or the unlawful or reckless use of a firearm by the respondent."

He wrote, "[The man] has made suicidal statements regarding a firearm to both the responding officers the night of the incident, December 29, and the investigating detective, December 31, 2019."

The Denver District Attorney's office decided to not charge the man and dropped the charges for his wife, reports 9News. For more about this incident, see here.