The Denver City Council approved a $225,000 settlement for two people after Denver police officers wrongfully held them at gunpoint and accidentally shot at them in 2024.
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The officers had mixed up the people’s car with that of a suspect’s, which was a similar color. While the two people were in the same area as the suspect’s car, they were headed in a different direction and had a different type of car and license plate than what the officers were told to track, according to the complaint filed in Denver District Court.
The council approved the settlement as part of their consent agenda Monday afternoon.
The case dates back to May 2024 when a man in the River North Art District called 911 at about 5:45 p.m. to report that a man in a red Saturn had threatened him with a gun and tried to run him over.
Camera operators for the Denver Police Department’s HALO camera network, short for High Activity Location Observation, then told police that they could see the driver of a red Saturn trying to run someone over.
They reported that the car was moving north on Brighton Boulevard and then pulled into a parking spot by the Salvation Army Crossroads Center on 29th Street. Officers headed in the direction of that car.
At the same time, Jessica Sjostrom and Rex Hickman were in a maroon Mercury driving south on Brighton Boulevard and stopped at the red light at 29th Street. The officers — Kirk Malone, Brayan Silva and Brian Camozzi — then approached the maroon Mercury with their guns drawn. Malone accidentally fired his gun at them, hitting a patio umbrella nearby, according to the complaint.
The officers pulled Sjostrom and Hickman from the car and handcuffed them. Then they searched them and their car.
Hickman and Sjostrom say the officers continued to treat them like criminals for hours afterward, according to an interview with 9News.
The case was set to go to trial in April but the two sides agreed on the settlement before that date, according to court documents.
Councilwoman Shontel Lewis called out the item on Monday’s agenda and said it would bring the city’s total in police settlement payouts to about $784,000 so far this year.
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