{"id":1078,"date":"2026-06-01T19:36:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2026-06-01T19:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:36:02","slug":"jury-deliberates-whether-jeffco-shooting-of-teen-looking-to-take-homecoming-photos-was-assault-or-an-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1078","title":{"rendered":"Jury deliberates whether Jeffco shooting of teen looking to take homecoming photos was assault or an accident"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><strong>Getting your Trinity Audio player ready&#8230;<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A Jefferson County jury was sent into deliberations Monday morning in the case of a man accused of shooting a 17-year-old boy in the face in 2024 \u2014 a shooting the defense argued was accidental and that prosecutors maintained was assault.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1076\">Pentagon policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, appeals court panel rules<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Brent Metz, a 40-year-old former councilman for the town of Mountain View who was recalled after the shooting, faces four felony charges: second-degree assault, illegal discharge of a firearm and two counts of felony menacing, according to court records.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe knows these are kids. He knows there is no danger,\u201d prosecutor Chris Johnson with the Jefferson County District Attorney\u2019s Office said during Monday morning\u2019s closing arguments. \u201cThis is not a self-defense situation. \u2026 He\u2019s acting out of anger, and he knows he\u2019s escalating that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Metz\u2019s defense attorneys, David Jones and Christopher Decker of the Law Offices of Decker and Jones, argued during the trial that Metz\u2019s gun had fired unintentionally when he shot Jack Howard in the face.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Gun just \u2018went off\u2019 when Jeffco resident shot teen looking for spot to take homecoming photos, defense says<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"isiWcYSLvf\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"282\" loading=\"lazy\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" scrolling=\"no\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2026\/05\/27\/brent-metz-jefferson-county-shooting\/embed\/#?secret=isiWcYSLvf\" title=\"\u201cGun just \u2018went off\u2019 when Jeffco resident shot teen looking for spot to take homecoming photos, defense says\u201d \u2014 The Denver Post\" width=\"500\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was being as careful as he could, and this horrible accident occurred anyway. It wouldn\u2019t have occurred if his gun wasn\u2019t defective,\u201d Decker said Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The defense called Edward Wilks to the stand during the trial, who said he has owned a gun store in Rifle for roughly 25 years and teaches concealed-carry handgun classes, according to reporting from Denver7. Wilks claimed the gun was unsafe and said misfirings happen \u201call the time\u201d without the trigger being pulled, Denver7 reported.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But the prosecution\u2019s firearm expert disputed that claim, and the handgun manufacturer, SIG Sauer, has repeatedly denied that the gun can be fired without pulling the trigger.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson called Metz\u2019s defense a \u201cself-serving version of what happened,\u201d but said even if that story is true, Metz &#8212; whom prosecutor Brian Hassing described as the \u201cultimate \u2018Get off my lawn\u2019 guy\u201d &#8212; should have been aware of the gun\u2019s risks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe defense wants you to believe that a trained and experienced shooter such as Mr. Metz &#8230; is able to disregard all that training, all that experience, all that knowledge and accidentally discharge a firearm,\u201d Hassing said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1074\">New measles case in Delta County suggests undetected spread<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Howard, who was 17 at the time, and his friend, 15-year-old Luke Brookhouser, stumbled upon Metz\u2019s property near Conifer while searching for a spot to take homecoming photos in September 2024. The two hopped the fence, walked up to the barn on the man\u2019s property and knocked, but left when no one answered the door, Johnson said.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The boys were sitting in their car and were writing a note asking permission to return to take the photos when Metz blocked them in, exited his truck and fired, Johnson said. The bullet struck Howard in the face and lodged behind his eye, fragmenting upon impact.<\/p>\n<p>Howard testified Thursday that he believed he would die from his injuries that day, according to reporting from Denver7.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese boys are credible, and they didn\u2019t embellish anything,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>But Decker claimed the boys\u2019 story was \u201ccompletely discredited by all the physical evidence\u201d and that Metz\u2019s gun fired \u201cunintended, accidentally and uncommanded.\u201d The prosecutors failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that Metz was guilty, Decker said.<\/p>\n<p>Metz was not drawing his weapon to fire, but was attempting to switch it from his vehicle holster to his hip holster as he got out of his truck, Decker said. He lost his balance exiting the truck and the gun discharged, Decker said.<\/p>\n<p>Howard\u2019s nose was fractured, and bullet pieces struck his eye, lip, tooth and arm, causing injuries that required more than $100,000 in medical treatment, according to a civil lawsuit filed against Metz. The lawsuit\u2019s proceedings were temporarily placed on hold pending the criminal case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReasonable doubt isn\u2019t calling a bunch of high-priced experts to try and confuse the issues,\u201d Johnson said Monday, pointing to the more than $15,000 that Metz\u2019s defense attorneys spent on witnesses to cast doubt on the boys\u2019 memories.<\/p>\n<p>Decker claimed that Brookhouser&#8217;s story had changed over time because of his brain \u201cfilling in the gaps\u201d from the traumatic experience. But the expert the defense called to prove that, Johnson said, concluded that \u201cwhat was said originally is most likely to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brookhouser described Metz pulling the gun, aiming it and shooting it several times on scene and later at the hospital before recounting it again two years later for the jury, Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1072\">Coloradans harmed by \u2018conversion therapy\u2019 can sue for damages under new law signed by Gov. Jared Polis<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The jury began deliberating just after 10:30 a.m. Monday.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brent Metz, former Mountain View councilman, faces four felony charges, including assault, illegal discharge of a firearm and menacing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courts","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jury deliberates whether Jeffco shooting of teen looking to take homecoming photos was assault or an accident - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1078\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jury deliberates whether Jeffco shooting of teen looking to take homecoming photos was assault or an accident - 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