"You're Breaking My Arm!": See Red Flag Law User Susan Holmes's Arrest

The legal odyssey of Susan Holmes has been horrifying and bizarre. She spent years trying to get accountability from authorities after her nineteen-year-old son, Jeremy Holmes, was shot to death by a CSU police officer near the university's campus in July 2017. Then, after she attempted to use Colorado's controversial new red flag law against the officer in question by filing an Extreme Risk Protection Order, or ERPO, in his name, she was targeted with an arrest warrant for perjury.

The latest twist: Holmes's bust took place while she was live-streaming an interview with a YouTube user known as timmybmn. While law enforcers aren't seen on camera in the video, on view here, they can be heard entering Holmes's home. As they take her into custody, she repeatedly exclaims, "You're breaking my arm! You're breaking my arm!"

Reached via email, Holmes states that she needs to "be circumspect due to the case." However, she notes that "I'm in a lot of physical pain. ... I just got out of the hospital after being released from the jail." She also confirms the authenticity of the video.

Holmes has become a political pawn in a game played by the likes of Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith, a longtime Second Amendment advocate who joined a complaint against Colorado gun-control laws in 2013; it ultimately fell short. Throughout much of last year, Smith expressed concerns about the red flag law, which creates a framework for temporarily taking guns away from those considered a danger to themselves and others. After Holmes deployed her ERPO, he declared in a January 15 Facebook post that her actions illustrated the measure's "tremendous procedural deficiencies" and accused Holmes of "fraud."

The following day, January 16, a judge rejected Holmes's ERPO. But afterward, she told us she didn't feel she violated the law when she marked a section of the order's form that reads, "I have a child in common with the respondent. (Regardless of marriage or whether you have lived with the respondent at any time.)"

Of course, the child in question is Jeremy, whom Holmes bore and raised and Phil Morris, the aforementioned police officer, killed after the teen moved rapidly in his direction while armed with a knife — an action that his mother believes the police precipitated by overreacting.

"I consulted two attorneys about that language before filing the ERPO — and one of them was a law professor," she said. "So I actually got legal advice before checking that box." She added: "I don't feel like I perjured myself. I don't."

This claim wasn't enough for authorities. On January 31, following the issuance of the warrant, Larimer County Crime Stoppers declared Holmes the most wanted person in the entire jurisdiction for the week. Then, on the 4th, she sat down to chat with timmybmn as officers were trying to gain entry to her residence, as captured in the following clip.


As you'll hear, the background voices get louder at around the video's twenty-minute point, and three minutes or so later, lights begin blinking and Holmes says the cops are coming into her home. She appears to be pulled off-camera as she makes claims about arm injuries, and within seconds, her half of the broadcast abruptly ends.

An update video from timmybmn published on February 5 revealed that Holmes had posted bond but was still in custody. She responded to Westword just after 4 p.m. yesterday.

The warrant for Holmes cited suspicion of perjury and attempting to influence a public servant, a pair of Class 4 felonies. If she's convicted, she could face between two and six years in prison and a $2,000 to $500,000 fine.