Armed Intruder Breaks into Colorado Supreme Court Building Transcript

Developing now, a shooting at a Colorado courthouse, an intruder opening fire on the building early this morning in Denver. The suspect entered the courthouse holding an unarmed security guard at gunpoint. That suspect, taken into custody now, and police are investigating a motive. Mola Lenghi is in Denver for us. So Mola, what do we know about how this all started and how police ultimately were able to arrest the suspect?

Well, yeah. Kyra, police say the incident began just after 1:00 AM, when this suspect was involved in a car crash just outside of the Colorado Supreme Court building in downtown Denver. They say once that car crash took place, the suspect got out of the car, pointed a gun at the other driver who was involved in the car crash, then turned his attention towards the Supreme Court building, shooting out a window of the Supreme Court building that was nearby. That gave him access to the building.

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Once he was inside, police say he encountered an unarmed security guard, held him at gunpoint, demanding access to other parts of the Supreme Court building, taking that security guard’s keys, and eventually making his way to the seventh floor of the Supreme Court building.

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Now, while this was happening, authorities say police were responding to the scene. They were setting up a perimeter around the building, outside of the building. Police say the suspect then began firing shots from inside the building at the officers who were outside. Authorities say none of their officers were hit, but this led to a several hours long standoff between the suspect, who was inside, and the officers, who were outside. This lasted about two hours. And authorities say that finally ended when the suspect, around 3:00 AM, called 911 and agreed to give himself up to authorities. They took him into custody at that point.

So it’s been, what, nearly two weeks now since the Colorado Supreme Court ruled to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot? Do you know if this attack was connected to recent threats in any way against the Supreme Court justices there?

Well, as you said, Kyra, it’s been a couple of weeks. There have been multiple threats made against Colorado Supreme Court justices since that ruling came down several weeks ago. At this point in the investigation to this early morning’s incident, authorities are saying preliminary investigations confirm a high probability that this incident is not associated to any of those recent threats against Colorado Supreme Court justices. So at this point, it does not look like it had anything to do with that recent ruling. It does not seem to be associated anyway with these recent threats. But again, authorities are still investigating a motive to why the suspect allegedly broke into the Supreme Court building and fired shots at police overnight.

We’ll track it. Mola, thank you so much.