‘We predicted this and said a falsely accused person has no recourse…’
UPDATE via AP: A judge on Thursday denied a petition to seize the guns of a police officer involved in the 2017 fatal shooting of a 19-year-old which was sought by the teen’s mother under Colorado’s new red flag law.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Colorado’s red flag law, which went into effect Jan. 1, allows law-enforcement officials to petition courts for the right to temporarily confiscate a resident’s weapons.
Now, one vengeful-mother-turned-social-justice-activist is attempting to use it against a police officer, in what some are calling the first abuse of the law.
Susan Holmes, of Fort Collins, filed an extreme risk protection order against the police officer who shot and killed her 19-year-old son in 2017 after he charged at the officer with a knife.
Holmes is currently running for a seat on the Fort Collins City Council and has been a vocal critic of police violence.
Holmes’s petition falsely claims that she and the officer, Cpl. Philip Morris, share a child together—an accusation that is not true, according to Channel 9 News.
But a judge has agreed to hear the case anyway, the outlet reports.
Despite the lack of a familial relationship between Holmes and Morris, a judge in Larimer County did not dismiss the red flag petition immediately. It’s set for a hearing later this week. I’ve reached out to CSU Police to see if Holmes’ employment is affected.
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) January 15, 2020
In the petition, Holmes calls Morris a “credible threat,” accusing the officer of using “his firearm to recklessly and violently threaten and kill 19-year-old Jeremy Holmes.”
Morris’s body camera revealed that he had asked Jeremy Holmes multiple times to drop the knife while Holmes continued to move toward him. Morris then reached for his gun to stun Holmes, but Holmes charged at him. Morris and another officer fired at Holmes, killing him.
Colorado House Minority Leader Patrick Neville said Susan Holmes’s abuse of the extreme risk protection order is an example of why red flag laws are dangerous.
We predicted this and said a falsely accused person has no recourse other than hoping a DA files charges. No recourse to recoup lost wages or reputation. One example of many about how this bill was so horribly written. #copolitics
— Rep. Patrick Neville (@PatrickForCO) January 15, 2020
Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said that even if the judge approved Susan Holmes’s petition, his officers would not confiscate Morris’s guns.
“I have not and will not be serving that petition, not because it’s against a police officer, but because it is a fraud,” Smith said in a statement. “We are actively investigating this abuse of the system, and we will determine what charges may be substantiated against the petitioner, Ms. Holmes.”