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On January 2, 2024, 44-year-old Brandon Olsen was apprehended after he broke into the Colorado Supreme Court building in Denver. He was reportedly carrying a handgun and started a fire in a stairwell.
The Denver Police Department reported that following his crime spree, Brandon faces charges of arson, robbery, and burglary, and as per standard protocol, the Denver District Attorney's Office will take the final decision on the charges.
The Denver Post reported that Brandon Olsen has been arrested multiple times in Colorado over the last decade. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft. In 2011 and 2013, he was apprehended on drug charges.
In the 2011 incident, he pleaded guilty to felony vehicular eluding, and many other charges against him were dismissed, including possessing methamphetamine and having an open container of alcohol in the car.
Brandon Olsen's crime spree began with a two-vehicle crash
The press release by the Denver Police Department stated that on January 2, 2024, at about 1:15 am, officers responded to a crash involving two vehicles near East 13th Avenue and Lincoln Street. An individual, later identified as Brandon Olsen, who was involved in the crash, allegedly grabbed a handgun and escaped the scene on foot.
According to the press release by the Denver Police Department, shortly after his escape, Brandon shot out a window on the east side of the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center located at 2 East 14th Avenue. He then entered the building and confronted an unarmed security guard from the Colorado State Patrol Capitol Security Unit.
Brandon Olsen forcibly acquired keys from the security guard and moved to other parts of the building. Denver Police officers, along with members of the Colorado State Patrol, responded to the scene and arranged a perimeter. He reportedly went up to the seventh floor, where he fired more shots inside the building, and then started a fire in a stairwell, which was extinguished by the Denver Fire Department.
As per the press release by the Denver Police Department, at around 3:00 a.m., Brandon willingly surrendered to authorities and was taken into custody without further incident.
Reuters reported that, according to the Colorado State Patrol, Brandon Olsen was transported to a hospital and cleared by medical personnel. No one was injured in the incident.
The Washington Post reported that the seventh floor smelled of smoke, and the sprinklers that went off due to the fire left standing water in the building. Burnt documents were located in the building, and no less than two windows on the seventh floor were damaged by bullets. Following the incident, authorities uncovered a semiautomatic pistol inside a conference room.
Brandon Olsen's motive behind the alleged crime remains unknown
The press release by the Denver Police Department stated that the department, along with the Colorado State Patrol, is handling the investigation of the case. Presently, authorities do not believe the incident to be correlated to any past threats to the Colorado Supreme Court Justices.
According to the report by CBS Colorado, in late December 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court made headlines when it ruled that former President Donald Trump is ineligible for the presidency under the Constitution's so-called insurrection clause and ordered the secretary of state to eliminate his name from the state's Republican presidential primary ballot. The ruling has been contested, and since the ruling, some of the justices have received threats.
However, the Colorado State Patrol dismissed any link to the Colorado Supreme Court's recent decision over Donald Trump's presidential candidacy. Reuters reported that the motive behind Brandon's actions remains unknown.
