Denver Police Accused of Cover-Up After SWAT Raided Wrong Address

Each June 6, Americans commemorate D-Day, the term given to the 1943 landing of United States and allied troops in Normandy, France, that began arguably the most consequential battle of World War II. But exactly eighty years later, Kirsty Shelton and her family experienced a far less triumphant invasion.

On that same date in 2023, Shelton was in her apartment when more than a dozen SWAT team officers affiliated with the Denver Police Department conducted a surprise attack intended to corral Danny Gene Garcia, an attempted-murder suspect, according to a lawsuit filed today, February 25, in Denver District Court.

Problem: While Shelton's place was also occupied by her two young daughters, her sister, Brittany, and her mother, Sharon Shelton-Knight, Garcia wasn't present — because he didn't live there. Garcia dwelled in the apartment across the hall, as Shelton-Knight told officers even before they'd gained entry to the wrong home, and frequently afterward. Rather than taking heed, however, the heavily armed and armored DPD crew menaced the family for nearly two hours before releasing them.

Moreover, in subsequent reports filed in the wake of Garcia's arrest, the officers either failed to acknowledge the gaffe at all or implied that the incursion had been part of the plan since the beginning. According to the incident commander, Lieutenant Kyle Smith, one of the suit's ten named defendants (assorted other SWAT team members are cited anonymously), Shelton and her loved ones were "contacted, advised of the situation, and evacuated for their safety."

Not so, maintains Shelton, who's disabled due to a stroke and regularly uses a walker or a wheelchair; she also has a therapy dog. In a statement provided by Denver's Holland, Holland Edwards & Grossman, PC, the law firm representing her and the additional foursome in the apartment, Shelton says, "The police promised an investigation but instead covered up the raid."

Shelton's daughters aren't identified in the suit, but the complaint contains multiple screen captures of them cowering or shrieking in fear of the weapon-packing intruders. The images strike Dan Weiss, one of the attorneys working on the case, as particularly heartbreaking.

"I don't understand why we live in a city where catching a criminal has to incur this kind of collateral damage," he notes. "Those little girls weren't touched by the police, but at that age, five or six years old, a bunch of people coming into your apartment dressed like they're in a war zone has to be a scarring experience."

To John Holland, Weiss's colleague, Smith's subsequent efforts to soft-pedal what happened make a horrible situation worse. "His statement acts as if this was just some polite, protect-and-serve activity that was conducted with respect to all of the surrounding neighbors," he argues. "But they made up a story that the evidence just overwhelmingly disproves. They did not invite this family to come out. They took them out at gunpoint and terrified them."

The incident happened on the 2300 block of Cleveland Place in a four-story apartment building. The Shetlons and Shelton-Knight lived in unit 306, while court papers reproduced in the complaint confirm that police knew Garcia occupied 307. A key excerpt asserts that on June 6, Detective Joe Portillo, a defendant with the Safe Streets Task Force Fugitive Group, observed Garcia outside the apartment building "and watched him walk to the Safeway across the street. Mr. GARCIA and an unknown male then returned to the apartment building. Detective PORTILLO observed Mr. GARCIA and the unknown male enter apartment #307 of the apartment complex, at which point Detective PORTILLO remained in the hallway with a constant view of the apartment door until members of the Denver METRO SWAT team arrived to relieve him."

Given Portillo's remarks and the fact that both apartments 306 and 307 were clearly marked should have prevented any confusion — but that's not the way things turned out.

"While preparing lunch and watching TV with my daughters, we were startled by extremely loud banging that damaged our door," Shelton's account points out. "Then, assault rifles were pointed at us, including from outside our windows. The police were fully aware during this raid that the person they were seeking was in a different apartment. Despite this, they persistently banged on our door and yelled at us to come out."

The police are said to have used a ramming device on the door, leaving several large marks. The DPD has not yet paid for the damage to be repaired, the lawsuit contends.

The screen capture at the top of this post shows an officer brandishing an assault rifle at Shelton-Knight, who was clad in pajamas at the time. A diabetic, Shelton-Knight is supposed to wear shoes, but she was made to step into the hallway barefoot. She "felt very faint and her heart continued to rapidly palpitate," the lawsuit states. "She also heard neighbors talking about the Plaintiffs being the ones [the police] were after and felt severely humiliated."

Shortly thereafter, Shelton was marched into the corridor and ordered to raise her hands, as seen in this screen capture:
"My mother and I repeatedly informed [the officers] that they were in the wrong apartment and that our young children were in the back," Shelton goes on. "However, they showed no regard or interest in our pleas and refused to allow us to enter with them. Instead, they swept our place and went to the girls' bedroom with their assault rifles drawn, further terrifying our girls and causing my littlest one to scream uncontrollably."

In the screen capture below, the two girls can be seen on huddled together on a bed. Their faces have been blurred to protect their privacy.
The lawsuit quotes the children as saying to the officers, "Don't hurt us," then states: "Confronted so starkly with what they had done, too late, these officers changed their tone and tried to calm the children down. Only after so needlessly further terrifying the children did the SWAT team bring the girls' mother back to the apartment." But she "was forced to keep her arms up despite her known innocence."

For her part, Brittany Shelton had just emerged from a shower when the officers flooded into the apartment and was cloaked in just a slip-dress. But she wasn't allowed to change clothes or even put on shoes before being directed out of the apartment; she, too, is a diabetic who isn't supposed to walk outside without footwear.

Shortly thereafter, Shelton says, "we were all then placed in a locked police car and held there for over an hour, without being permitted to leave."

After they were finally freed, Shelton issued a complaint against the SWAT officers, triggering an Internal Affairs inquiry and a review by the Office of the Independent Monitor, which is tasked with "receiving and processing community complaints about DPD and DSD sworn personnel." Yet thus far, attorney Holland says, the city has denied his firm's requests under the Colorado Open Records Act to see the findings, ostensibly due to the prospect of "further reviews" in the future.

Holland sees the rejections as a delaying tactic.

"The statute of limitations will run out before they complete these reviews," he worries. "So we have to sue now, and we're pointing out this concealment, because I think it will allow us to amend and add parties. Even if they keep this information secret for another six months, there's an extension for wrongful concealment of evidence. We've seen this kind of thing for years. They never finish their reports and keep them tied up in bureaucratic processes to deny access to them forever. But this is evidence — statements by witnesses that they're concealing."
Rather than pursuing the case in federal court, the law firm is bringing its claims under the Colorado Constitution's   Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity Act, or ELEIA, enacted in 2020. Among the ELEIA provisions being applied is one that holds: "A peace officer, who, under color of law, subjects or causes to be subjected, including failing to intervene, any other person to the deprivation of any individual rights that create binding obligations on government actors secured by the bill of rights, Article II of the state constitution, is liable to the injured party for legal or equitable relief or any other appropriate relief."

"This case would and does violate federal law," Holland explains. "But Colorado's constitution expressly holds officers liable for failing to intervene — which federal cases do, too, but not as robustly and not as obviously." In his view, "it's a significant improvement in the theory of law."

Still, Weiss prefers his focus to be on the people harmed instead of legal strategies.

"To me, this incident shows a contempt level that the SWAT team has for regular people, and that really bothers me," he says. "These SWAT officers seem to have contempt for regular people not only in the way they treat these people, but how they write about it afterward. They basically decide they have no obligation to report truthfully about what happened."

He feels the officers' alleged cover-up demonstrates that "they're more than embarrassed about going into apartment 306. They understand they've broken the law and violated the constitution. Otherwise, why would they try to write it out of existence?"

These comments are echoed by Shelton. As she puts it, "We are bringing this lawsuit to shed more light on the continuing fact that police can and do abuse innocent people and cover up their actions. We are still recovering from the trauma of this experience and have required extensive counseling. Someone must stand up against this injustice, or it will continue to be swept under the rug."

Westword has reached out to the Denver Police Department and the Denver Department of Public Safety for comment about the lawsuit. See Kirsty Shelton, et al., v. Officer Kyle Smith, et al., below.