Colorado deputy who killed Christian Glass shares story for first time: "Something I live with every day"
Andrew Buen, 31, the former Clear Creek County deputy sheriff who shot and killed motorist Christian Glass in 2022, will be sentenced Monday for criminally negligent homicide, but prior to the hearing told CBS News Colorado, "My actions resulted in the outcome of someone losing their life and that's something I live with every day."
Buen has not spoken publicly about the night of June 10, 2022, until now. He went to trial twice but declined to testify both times.
"Christian is gone," said Buen. "It breaks my heart, honestly. It was at my hand."
In two interviews with CBS News Colorado, spanning 90 minutes, Buen outlined what happened that night from his perspective, what he did, and why he did it.
"I would never have done what I did if I didn't feel it was absolutely necessary at that moment," said Buen, who has had nearly three years to reflect on what happened. "Was there things I could have done differently? Absolutely, absolutely."
Glass, 22, was driving from Moab back to his home in Boulder. He was near Silver Plume in Clear Creek County when his SUV got stuck. He called 911 for help and told a 911 operator he had several weapons in his car, including knives.
"I will throw them out the window as soon as an officer gets here," Glass told the operator.
Buen was one of the first officers to arrive. Through a car window, Glass told deputies, "I am so scared. I'm not dangerous." He refused to get out of his car. When he told Buen he could throw the knife, a hammer and mallet out of the car window, Buen ordered him, "Do not throw them out."
Buen was asked why he wouldn't allow Glass to throw weapons out of a car window.
"The goal is to get people separated from the vehicle and what's in it," said Buen.
He said it "never crossed my mind" to allow Glass to toss his knife from the car.
"There's never anything based on my training, experience that would be in the realm of possibility," said Buen.
But he said after reflecting on how things went, letting Glass dispose of his knife might have been worth considering "to see if that changes his demeanor." However, that didn't happen, and the standoff dragged on with Glass refusing to leave his car.
Glass's parents previously said they believed their son was in the midst of a mental health crisis.
"The whole thing is so hard to understand," said Glass's father, Simon.
In a call that night during the standoff, a Colorado State Patrol officer seemed to question the idea of breaching the vehicle to get Glass out if no crime had been committed. A CSP trooper suggested Glass was not a danger to himself or anyone else.
During his interview with CBS Colorado, Buen said, "Nothing was having the outcome we wanted it to do."
When asked, "What was the rush? Why not just wait him out?" Buen responded, "We could probably sit down and come up with an entire curriculum of what things to do better."
He said in hindsight, he and other officers could have been "more open minded, slow it down even more. Just having so many other options when you look back at it."
With Glass refusing to get out of the car, police decided to break a window after just over an hour. That led to them shooting Glass with less-than-lethal beanbags and using a taser on Glass, who held a knife in his right hand. He began swinging the knife toward another officer who was next to the car.
Buen fired his weapon from his vantage point at the front of the car. Glass died at the scene.
"When I saw what I saw and believed what I believed, that's why I did what I did," said Buen.
He said firing at Glass was a "last resort" when he believed another officer was "being attacked with a knife. I didn't know if he (the other officer) had gotten stabbed or not, but thought he had. I remember having the overwhelming sense of, was I too slow? I never would have fired my weapon if I didn't feel it was absolutely necessary in that moment."
Now, said Buen, he thinks about what happened every day and finds himself crying in sadness over what happened.
"You live with the sense of guilt regardless of which side the rest of your life, every day," said Buen.
He said the sadness "doesn't leave."
He plans to speak at his sentencing Monday, addressing the Glass family.
"No matter what, at the end of the day, that loss is always going to be there. They've lost their whole world. Turned upside down," said the former deputy.
He said he prays every night for the Glass family, "That God grant them peace and they're able to have some sense of peace for the rest of their time. It was never an ill intent situation."
Mallory Revel, one of Buen's attorneys, said, "It is always a lawyer's hope that their client will receive the least severe penalty possible. Andrew, however, is prepared to accept whatever sentence will bring the Glass family the most peace and healing possible. That comes from a place of pure sincerity and not a desire to assuage his guilt. That is what he wanted to convey the most in this interview."
But the Glass family has repeatedly said they feel Buen "murdered" their son.
"It's clearly murder," said Simon Glass.
He called what happened "A total disregard for human life."
There has to be accountability," he said.
Simon said he has not watched all the police body cam video of what happened to his son. Neither has Andrew Buen.
"I lived it once," said Buen. "I never want to visit it again."
