Former US officer convicted over fatal shooting of NZ man Christian Glass

Another US police officer has been found guilty over the fatal shooting of a New Zealand-born man in Colorado almost three years ago.

Andrew Buen faced a number of charges, including second degree murder and criminally negligent homicide in relation to the shooting of 22-year-old Christian Glass.

Colorado news agency CPR News reported that the jury took almost an entire day to find the former Clear Creek County Sheriff’s deputy guilty of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.

CPR news reported that the sentence for the charge could be up to three years in prison, but as Buen was eligible for probation he could serve no prison time.

If he had been found guilty of second degree murder, Buen could have served up to 48 years in prison.

The verdict means that Buen will never again work in law enforcement, CPR news reported.

In 2022, Glass was shot five times by police after calling 911 during an apparent mental health crisis.

Buen was one of the officers who responded to the call.

Glass’s car was stuck on the road, and he had called the police for assistance.

Body-camera footage showed Glass, at times, making heart signs with his hands to the officers, though he refused to leave his vehicle.

The Denver Post reported that glass had been having paranoid delusions, and that he was in possession of a knife when police arrived on the scene, but had offered to throw his knives out of the car.

The hour-long stand-off ended with officers smashing a window, tasering Glass and finally shooting him.

The Denver Post reported that it was Buen who smashed the window and attempted to drag him from the vehicle, and Buen who later shot him five times.

Read the article in its entirety at: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/542622/former-us-officer-convicted-over-fatal-shooting-of-nz-man-christian-glass