The civil rights attorney for a man shot by Denver police officers in a confrontation July 17 said the criminal charges filed against his client “don’t add up” to support claims by law enforcement he threatened officers with a gun. 

The facts of how the incident unfolded early on a Sunday morning near 20th and Larimer streets are still in dispute. Police responded to an altercation and have said Jordan Waddy, 21, pointed a gun at officers, prompting them to fire. Six bystanders were also injured in the incident.

Waddy’s civil rights attorney, Tyrone Glover, told The Denver Gazette that he believes the lower-level counts filed against his client don’t support police’s version of the incident and suggest there isn’t probable cause to believe that he brandished a weapon at them. 

“We’re talking about charges that have nothing to do with officers or officer safety,” Glover said. “If he was threatening them with a gun, they would have charged him with threatening them with a gun.”

Waddy faces one charge of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor. He originally was investigated for menacing, a more serious charge. He also faces three counts of possession of a weapon by a previous offender, a felony.

Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said in a statement last week when her office filed charges that police suspected Waddy of having a gun in his pocket and officers recovered a loaded gun at the scene.

In a court hearing Tuesday, public defender Becca Butler-Dines also said evidence the defense has reviewed doesn’t support the claims that Waddy threatened anyone with a gun. 

“The footage that we have seen raises serious concerns about how DPD handled the situation,” she said.

A Denver magistrate set a $10,000 bond Tuesday for Waddy. Prosecutors had requested a $75,000 cash-only bond, while Waddy’s defense attorney argued for supervised release on personal recognizance. 

Butler-Dines said Waddy has a full-time job that he can return to on release, a stable living situation at his father’s home and reliable transportation to appear at future court dates. 

Waddy appeared virtually Tuesday. Butler-Dines said Waddy returned to the hospital over the weekend when he began bleeding internally from his wounds while waiting to be processed into jail. He was shot several times, she said, and initially spent several days in the hospital and underwent emergency surgery.

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Police have said they plan to release body camera footage of the incident. Under Colorado law, audio and video footage of an incident has to be released within 21 days of a request in which there is a complaint of misconduct leveled at a peace officer made by a civilian, nonprofit or another peace officer. The release can be delayed until 45 days if it “would substantially interfere with or jeopardize an active or ongoing investigation.” 

Prosecutors don’t object to the footage’s release, they said Tuesday. However, Waddy can still raise a constitutional objection. Butler-Dines said they likely won’t challenge the release, but they are still going through more than 120 pieces of footage and haven’t made a final decision.

Two investigations are ongoing into the shootings by police to determine whether the officers violated department policy and if any criminal charges against the officers are warranted.

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