Scripps News was the first media organization to obtain body camera footage of police response to the Club Q shooter's home after months of pushing the El Paso County Sheriff's Office to release it. We wanted the public to see for themselves what exactly happened on this day.
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00:00 Scripps News has been fighting for several months to be able to bring you body camera footage from a bomb threat incident that happened more than a year before the same suspect went on to commit a mass shooting.
00:11 And for the first time, we're able to see the intense police response from that incident.
00:16 Get her out.
00:17 Oh, God, I can't. I can't leave him.
00:19 You're fine. Get in now.
00:20 I can't. I can't leave him.
00:22 You're watching as Colorado Sheriff's deputies arrive at the scene of an alleged bomb threat in 2021.
00:28 They're trying to convince the suspect's mother to leave the area.
00:32 The suspect in this case is the same person who 17 months later would shoot up a gay nightclub and kill five people.
00:40 On this day, the mother warns deputies if they approach the house, the suspect could blow it up.
00:46 You need to evacuate the block now.
00:48 OK, we're going to.
00:49 You need to.
00:50 OK.
00:51 You need to evacuate the neighbors.
00:52 OK.
00:53 He's got a lot of stuff in there. Do you understand?
00:55 Scripps News was the first media organization to obtain this body camera footage after months of pushing the El Paso County Sheriff's Office to release it.
01:04 We wanted the public to see for themselves what exactly happened on this day and to understand why the criminal charges related to this troubling incident weren't enough to put this suspect behind bars and potentially prevent the mass shooting at Club Q in 2022.
01:21 He's literally been putting together stuff to make a huge bomb and he wants to go out in the blaze and he was going to kill us both.
01:34 The woman who first called 911 that day was the suspect's grandmother.
01:39 She ran out of the home, worried she'd be killed in the body camera footage.
01:43 We obtained a deputy contacts her again on the phone and the grandmother doubles down, saying the suspect, quote, pretty much went nuts.
01:52 He ran down and got his gun, came up and loaded him and had him aimed at him and told us the fight starts now and ends today.
02:05 And you guys are going with me.
02:07 We're all going to die together.
02:10 As SWAT officers prepare their weapons, they recognize the whole neighborhood could be in danger.
02:15 And that mom, she's literally begging me to evacuate all these people.
02:19 She said, if you breach that house or go in that house, you're going to blow it up again and again.
02:23 Authorities tried to convince the suspect to come outside.
02:31 People watching our backs. Police records confirm the suspect did have ammonium nitrate, a bomb making material.
02:40 Hours later, the suspect surrenders. Deputies recover weapons from the home and the suspect ends up here in a jail cell charged with felony menacing and kidnapping.
02:51 It may have seemed like an open and shut case, but the criminal charges would eventually be dismissed by a judge.
02:58 When the district attorney says the suspect's family members couldn't be convinced to cooperate with prosecutors.
03:04 That includes the suspect's grandmother, who called 911, afraid for her life, and the mother who told deputies the suspect might kill people and blow something up.
03:14 But even without their testimony, you might wonder why this video and the 911 calls weren't enough to bring a case.
03:22 It's because defendants have the right to confront their accusers in court, according to University of Denver associate law professor Ian Farrell.
03:30 There are rules about having a right to confront your accusers.
03:34 If it's a body cam or a recording, you don't, as the defense, get the opportunity to cross-examine, to push back against the witness,
03:43 because maybe they are saying things on camera that aren't really happening, or maybe they're saying things on the phone line that aren't really happening.
03:50 District attorney Michael Allen was forced to drop the case just months before the nightclub attack, when the judge dismissed it.
03:57 The DA wouldn't speak to Scripps News for this story, but has repeatedly said publicly that his office did everything it possibly could.
04:04 This office absolutely prosecuted it. We prosecuted it until we couldn't prosecute it any longer, and it would not have prevented the Club Q shooting.
04:13 That suspect is now serving multiple life sentences for the Club Q murders.
04:18 The district attorney that handled that case and the bomb threat case wouldn't speak to me further.
04:24 They say the federal government is now pursuing a possible death penalty case against that same suspect.
04:29 Lori Jangliha, Scripps News, Denver.