Police: Colo. Supreme Court Shooting Very Likely Not Tied to Trump Ban

Facts

• An armed man broke into the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center, which houses the Colorado Supreme Court, early Tuesday morning, firing several shots before turning himself in to authorities.¹
• The suspect entered the Denver building after two cars crashed at 13th Ave. and Lincoln Street at 1:15 am local time. A man involved pointed a handgun at the other driver and proceeded to shoot at the east side of the judicial center.²
• Shortly after, the gunman breached the courthouse and held an unarmed security guard at gunpoint, taking his keys to access other parts of the building. The suspect went up to the 7th floor, where he fired more shots before calling 911 to surrender to authorities at 3 a.m.³
• The Denver Police Department said no one was injured during the incident, but there was significant and extensive damage done to the building, according to the Colorado State Patrol. The suspect was later taken to a local hospital for medical evaluation.⁴
• The incident comes after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that former Pres. Donald Trump was banned from appearing on the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot. Despite speculation, the Colorado Supreme Court released a bulletin mid-morning Tuesday (local time) saying that there is a high probability that the incident “is NOT associated to the recent threats against the Colorado Supreme Court justices.”⁵
• Following the controversial 4-3 decision, the court’s justices reportedly received a series of threats, however, the Denver Police Department says that the threat it investigated last week was a 'hoax.' The US Supreme Court will likely weigh on whether Trump can appear on primary ballots.⁶

Sources: ¹NBC, ²FOX News, ³CBS, ⁴Colorado Public Radio, ⁵The Colorado Sun and ⁶Forbes.

Narratives

• Republican narrative, as provided by The Gateway Pundit. Everyone knows that the Colorado Supreme Court is thwarting democracy with its attempt to remove former Pres. Donald Trump from the state's Republican presidential primary ballot, and this incident has nothing to do with that injustice. It's extremely bad faith and dangerous to make this correlation in today's polarized, left-leaning media environment. Thankfully no one was hurt, and hopefully, Colorado shows that it cares about the will of the people.
• Democratic narrative, as provided by CNN. While Tuesday’s shooting currently doesn't appear to be related to the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove Donald Trump from the primary ballot, there are still threats against the court’s justices from MAGA extremists. The insurrection on January 6th showed that Trump's fanatical supporters will resort to violence to defend him and police should not let their guards down. Right-wing extremism is still a major threat, and the Colorado Supreme Court justices must continue to be protected.

Predictions