Christchurch-born Christian Glass was shot dead by US police after calling 911 for roadside assistance when his car got stuck near Denver in Colorado in June 2022. Photo: Supplied by Rathod Mohamedbhai Attorneys at Law
Another US police officer has been found guilty over the fatal shooting of a New Zealand-born man in Colorado almost three years ago.
Andrew Buen faced a number of charges, including second degree murder and criminally negligent homicide in relation to the shooting of 22-year-old Christian Glass.
Colorado news agency CPR News reported that the jury took almost an entire day to find the former Clear Creek County Sheriff's deputy guilty of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
CPR news reported that the sentence for the charge could be up to three years in prison, but as Buen was eligible for probation he could serve no prison time.
If he had been found guilty of second degree murder, Buen could have served up to 48 years in prison.
The verdict means that Buen will never again work in law enforcement, CPR news reported.
In 2022, Glass was shot five times by police after calling 911 during an apparent mental health crisis.
Buen was one of the officers who responded to the call.
Glass's car was stuck on the road, and he had called the police for assistance.
Body-camera footage showed Glass, at times, making heart signs with his hands to the officers, though he refused to leave his vehicle.
The Denver Post reported that glass had been having paranoid delusions, and that he was in possession of a knife when police arrived on the scene, but had offered to throw his knives out of the car.
The hour-long stand-off ended with officers smashing a window, tasering Glass and finally shooting him.
The Denver Post reported that it was Buen who smashed the window and attempted to drag him from the vehicle, and Buen who later shot him five times.
Glass's parents were relieved by the verdict, CPR News reported. Photo: Getty Images / Denver Post
During closing statements prosecutor Joseph Kirwan said that Glass had committed no crime, and that police had no reason to attempt to remove him from the vehicle, The Denver Post reported.
Glass's parents, Simon and Sally Glass, were relieved by the verdict.
"He's in handcuffs. He's being walked away in handcuffs and he's finally going to be in jail, which is where he needs to be," Sally Glass said per CPR News.
Speaking to Stuff on Friday, Simon Glass said, "you never know what a jury is going to do, we're just really pleased that we got a conviction.
"The defence had all sorts of reasons why it wasn't him, they were saying he wasn't in charge, someone else was in charge, someone else was giving orders and all that sort of thing but I think the jury could see he was the main guy.
"We'll turn up for the bail hearing, we'll turn up for the sentencing and I think there's four more officers facing charges and their cases will go ahead now because they were waiting for this", Glass said.
"He's the one that we really wanted to go to prison because of what he did. If he hadn't been there Christian would be alive, I don't think any of the other officers would have done what Buen did."
Buen will be sentenced on 14 April .
Gould guilty plea
Last year former sergeant Kyle Gould pleaded guilty to charges of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment relating to the death.
Gould was fined nearly US$1000 (NZ$$1700) and given two years probation.
"Gould was fired from the Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office a year ago after being indicted by a grand jury. As part of his plea deal, Gould agreed that he can't serve as a police officer or security officer ever again in the state of Colorado," CBS Colorado reported.
At that time, Buen pleaded not guilty.
Civil case
In 2022 a civil case concluded with Glass's family seeing an estimated $30 million ($US19 million) settlement, alongside changes to how officers were trained.
At the time, Sally Glass told Morning Report she was pleased the settlement could reduce the risk of another family losing a child in the same way.
"It's just been ... awful. It's nearly a year - Christian was murdered nearly a year ago," she said.
"But it is the culmination of a lot of work, determination ... [from] us and particularly our lawyers, to uncover the truth to get to the bottom of what really happened that night.
"So I feel it's been a bit of a fight. But what has happened is that our dear son, his name has been cleared of any wrongdoing. The police were completely in the wrong, and the large settlement really sends that strong message."
Simon Glass said clearing his son's name was important.
"We were told initially that Christian attacked the police and they were forced to defend themselves. I think the body cam footage did help a lot, but the very first thing that happened was once lawyers got involved they went and watched that and immediately they could see that this was murder.
"We're pleased the body cam footage has shown the truth, and that the agencies involved have in the most part come clean and said 'yes this was wrong, this was murder'.
"Christian had a very strong sense of justice, he would have been horrified at what was done to him, I'm sure he was, and we feel we must clear his name - initially the account of events was lies."
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