A man shot his way into Colorado’s Supreme Court building in the early hours of Tuesday morning and held the security guard at gunpoint while demanding access to other parts of the building, police say.
Officers from the Denver Police Department were dispatched to the scene of a two-car crash, just blocks away from the Supreme Court building, also called Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center, at around 1:15 a.m.
One of the drivers involved in the crash allegedly pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the other driver.
Soon after, the armed driver allegedly shot through a window on the east side of Colorado’s Supreme Court building, which is located in the vicinity of other state government buildings including Colorado’s state Capitol. The person then breached the building, police say, and held an unarmed security guard at gunpoint while demanding keys to access the rest of the building. After obtaining the keys, the suspect made his way to the seventh floor while continuing to fire shots.
The incident is under investigation and police have not yet identified a motive or released the suspect’s name.
In a statement, Colorado State Patrol said that preliminary investigations “confirmed a high probability” that the incident was “NOT associated to the recent threats against the Colorado Supreme Court Justices.”
The FBI joined local authorities in investigating those threats following the court’s 4-3 ruling on December 19 to disqualify Donald Trump from running for president in Colorado, due to his engagement in “insurrection.”
The suspect surrendered to police at around 3 a.m. No one was injured but there is “significant and extensive damage” to the building itself, Colorado State patrol said.