Denver Police Officer Who Mistook a Marker for a Knife Has Disciplinary Past

It's been over two weeks since the Denver Police Department came forward with body-camera footage of an officer fatally shooting a man who'd charged at her with what she thought was a knife but turned out to be a marker.

Although the video made national news, little has been reported about the cop who gunned down Brandon Cole — or the case in general — other than what DPD Chief Ron Thomas shared at an August 14 press briefing.

But police officials tell Westword that the officer involved in the shooting, who has not been identified, has been the subject of least three internal affairs cases where the findings were "sustained." In 2020, the year after she joined the force, she received a written reprimand for a "preventable accident" in which she sideswiped a civilian's car with her patrol vehicle in October. That June, she'd received an oral reprimand for a violation of "attendance in court"; two months later, she was involved in a case for "general operation of department vehicles" violation that led to "no discipline," according to the DPD.

The department's operations manual states that an oral reprimand is given to an officer when they commit their first offense; a written reprimand is given following a second offense within a twelve-month period. Had the officer been part of another preventable auto accident at any point between 2020 and 2022, she would have been required to attend remedial driving training and possibly subjected to further disciplinary action by way of the DPD's Conduct Review Division or her commander, according to the manual.

In October 2020, the officer was driving south on the 700 block of Clay Street when she attempted to avoid another vehicle that was traveling north. She reportedly "moved over to the west side of the roadway to avoid the other vehicle and drove too close to a legally parked vehicle, striking the parked vehicle's left side mirror with the right side mirror of the patrol vehicle," the case report says.

"The patrol vehicle suffered a minor scratch to the mirror, but the parked vehicle's mirror was shattered and the mirror housing was damaged," it adds.

After the Cole shooting, the officer was placed on modified paid leave while the Denver District Attorney's Office determines whether to file criminal charges. If the DA decides not to charge her, she will still be required to complete the department's "reintegration program" before returning to an official patrol assignment. "Per standard protocol, the officer will be placed in a non-line (non-patrol) assignment as she goes through the reintegration process," DPD spokesperson Jay Casillas tells Westword.

Cole, 36, was allegedly drinking and fighting with his wife and son at their residence in the 2300 block of West Cedar Avenue when police arrived on August 5. According to the DPD, he'd pushed his wife out of a wheelchair while they were arguing in the street, which led to neighbors calling 911.

Two officers — a male and a female — responded to the domestic-violence call just after 8 p.m. Cole was outside and acting aggressively toward them, according to DPD officials and the released body-camera footage.

"Don't pull your gun out on my husband," his wife, Ebony Cole, can be heard asking the two cops at the scene. "Please."

Moments later, Cole is observed "reaching into the driver's area of a vehicle that was parked," according to DPD Commander Matt Clark, who spoke at the August 14 press briefing. "When the subject stepped away from the vehicle, he began challenging a uniformed officer who was directly in front of him by taking an aggressive stance and yelling, 'Let's go.'"

The two cops "quickly" addressed the situation and attempted to calm down Cole, but nothing seemed to work, Clark added: “Part of de-escalation is specifically calling him by name, speaking calmly with him, trying to get his compliance. And that just wasn’t effective.”

Footage from the male officer's body camera shows him deploying a Taser and attempting to use it on Cole, but one of the barbs didn't stick, and Cole kept moving.

He can be seen on the female officer's body cam charging at her with an object in his hand at chest level, while a woman and small child stand on the sidewalk behind him. The officer fires at Cole twice and he drops the object, which turns out to be a black marker.

"You can see in the video that when she finally deploys her duty weapon, the person is so close to her that the view of the young child and other person are not even clear to her," Thomas said at the August 14 briefing. "There was not much time to act before she was overrun by that individual."

While Thomas referred to the shooting as a "tremendous tragedy," he also stated that the officer's actions were justified. But the DA's office hasn't yet made that determination.

"We will review the investigation in detail and apply the law to the facts of the case, just as we do in all cases," says Matthew Jablow, public information officer for the Denver DA. "After applying Colorado law to the evidence, we will determine if a criminal charge can be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt (taking into account any defenses) and, if so, what charge is appropriate."

Jablow adds, "The Denver Police Department does not take a position on the appropriateness of criminal charges; that determination rests solely with the District Attorney’s Office. DPD will determine whether any internal administrative policies were violated by the officer after the District Attorney comes to her conclusion as to whether criminal charges will be filed."

As of August 29, no decision letter had been handed down in the Cole shooting. In the meantime, advocates have called on Mayor Mike Johnston to step in and make the changes at the police department that he hinted at while on the campaign trail earlier this year.

"The investigation is underway, and Mayor Johnston is interested to learn the decision made by the Denver District Attorney’s Office," press secretary Jordan Fuja tells Westword.

"He is in regular conversations with Denver Police Department and the Department of Public Safety to ensure officers have the tools and training they need to perform their jobs at the highest level, and will continue to ensure that our city is a place where people feel safe and protected," Fuja adds.

The Denver DA's office posted a decision letter on August 25 related to an officer-involved shooting in north Denver on May 31 that saw a Thornton police officer shooting a burglary suspect who had opened fire on the officer. After reviewing the investigation, District Attorney Beth McCann said her office would not be pursuing criminal charges against the Thornton cop.

In July, McCann sent out a decision letter related to a May 1 shooting where two DPD officers killed a knife-wielding man who was holding two people hostage at a residence on Oneida Street. "The deadly force used in this instance was legally justified under Colorado law," the letter reported.

In Aurora, the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office has been weighing charges related to a June 1 incident that left a fourteen-year-old dead after cops mistook the pellet gun he was carrying for a 9mm pistol.

"A charging decision is imminent," says Eric Ross, media relations director for the DA's office.

Jor'Dell Richardson had allegedly robbed a convenience store with the fake firearm and was attempting to flee when an officer with the Aurora Police Department confronted him in an alley and shot him, according to authorities. Cops say the teen was reaching for the pellet gun after officers had told him they would open fire.

In January, a Denver grand jury handed down a criminal indictment related to a July 2022 DPD-involved shooting in Denver's Ballpark neighborhood, near the edge of LoDo, that left six innocent bystanders wounded. The actions of Officer Brandon Ramos, one of three cops involved, were found to be "reckless, unreasonable and unnecessary for the purpose of protecting himself or other officers" when he opened fire on suspect Jordan Waddy, who was carrying a gun but in the process of throwing it aside.

"Officer Ramos was not in immediate danger himself when Waddy began to pull his gun from his hooded jacket while facing [the other two cops]," the indictment says. "He consciously disregarded an unjustifiable risk of injury to the crowd behind Mr. Waddy."

Critics of the Denver cops suggest that the officer could have stopped Cole with her Taser rather than using deadly force.

According to Chief Thomas, though, it is standard operating procedure for DPD officers to deploy their firearm when another cop is using "less-lethal" options that might fail. “We have to have one officer that has a lethal weapon deployed, in case those less-lethal options are not effective,” Thomas said at the August 14 press briefing.

Still, Ebony Cole thinks her husband didn't have to be shot.

“That man was a good man. He didn’t deserve to be killed,” she told the Associated Press after the DPD press briefing. “They didn’t have to kill him.”