The 61-year-old Douglas County man claimed to be ex-special forces, a sniper who’d worked for the CIA.
He called police to his home more than once, told them he’d been shot while checking the mail, or that he’d awoken to find silencer-toting hitmen in his bedroom. He bragged about shooting someone and threatened others. He held conversations with no one and routinely wore a tactical vest labeled “deputy sheriff” while stopping citizens to ask if everything was OK.
And he owned at least 59 guns and 50,000 rounds of ammunition, Douglas County sheriff’s investigators discovered this June, when they were granted an extreme risk protection order to seize the man’s firearms for his and others’ safety under Colorado’s now 1-year-old red flag law.
In its first year, the controversial law has proven to be a useful tool for law enforcement and fears of widespread misuse have been largely unrealized, a Denver Post review found. The majority of permanent extreme risk protection orders granted by judges were requested by law enforcement, and even sheriffs who expressed concerns about the law have used it to diffuse potential danger.
Read the rest from our partners at The Denver Post.