Editor’s note: the second victim was previously identified as a woman. The shooting victim was actually a 23-year-old man.

The Denver District Attorney’s Office filed felony charges against the 28-year-old man suspected of shooting at two people and injuring one at Denver’s Washington Park last weekend.

Ryan Egelston faces two counts of attempted murder after deliberation, two counts of attempted murder with extreme indifference, one count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of vehicular eluding and six sentence enhancers, a spokesperson with the office told The Denver Gazette.

The charges are in connection with the two shootings that occurred at the busy city park around 2 p.m. Sunday. 

The first incident occurred when an “older, hunched over” man asked to sit on the same park bench as Egelston. Egelston then allegedly spit on the man, pushed him and punched him in the lower back, according to Denver Police Department arrest records.

The man attempted to get on his bicycle and Egelston allegedly fired a handgun at him once, striking his back tire.

In an interview after his arrest, Egelston told detectives that he told the man to leave and claimed he was a “pedophile” who wanted “to touch him,” according to the arrest affidavit. 

The suspect said he considered the gunfire to be a warning shot.

Egelston then began to walk southbound in the area of East Kentucky Avenue and South Downing Street and fired at a second person from behind, hitting him in the jaw and neck, Denver police said.

The man suffered a broken jaw, several missing teeth and arterial bleeding, according to records.

“At no point did the second victim and the defendant appear to have any sort of disagreement or altercation prior to the shooting,” the affidavit states.

Egelston told police that the man upset him because she had “something under her tongue, possibly a whistle.” He claimed to have shot near her, but not directly at her, as another warning.

The suspect got into a red Hyundai sedan when police officers arrived, allegedly fleeing the officers on northbound South Downing Street despite officers turning on their vehicle lights.

Police used a maneuver to stop the vehicle on East Kentucky Avenue and arrested the man.

Egelston told investigators multiple times that he didn’t intend to shoot anyone. He also mentioned that the people he shot toward were somehow involved in “psy-ops,” according to records.

He also stated that in May of 2024 he was placed on a mental health hold by Lakewood for suicidal ideations and talk of “psy-ops.”

According to court records, Egelston had no other criminal cases in the state of Colorado prior to the shooting. 

But a glimpse into the suspect’s life showed some clues as to his mindset.

Egelston was no stranger to social media, posting often about religion. On an Aug. 29, 2024, Facebook post, he showed what appeared to be scribbles in red pencil that he called “a vision of heaven” that he claimed God gave him. 

Egelston’s name is also shown as the creator of a blog in which he says he is a Revelation 11 Witness and describes himself as “a man of faith, people lover, reader, entrepreneur, speaker, rising author, listener, joy enthusiast, and hustler.” He advertised that he was available for speeches.

Egelston joined a Christian podcaster in March 2024 and said AI would bring about the end of the world.

“I have seen certain indicators going off via technology; certain things with lights outside, streetlights outside,” he said on the podcast. “I’ve seen certain discernment things go off that are eluding to me the level of control that exists out there that in society that has been informed through AI.”

Robert Thibodeau, who hosts the Kingdom Crossroads podcast, told The Denver Gazette’s news partner, 9News, that Egelston approached him about appearing on the podcast.

“His views were to the extreme, I guess you could say,” Thibodeau told 9News. “But at the same time, they were his views, and I was asking questions.”

Thibodeau said he vets his podcast guests, and that some are not invited on. He said that Egelston’s views pushed the limits of who he’d invite on his show.

“If you did a scale of 1 to 10, his is probably about 9, I guess 8.5, 9,” Thibodeau said. “Typically, it might be 6.5 to 7.”

Denver police declined to release the victims’ statements, citing an ongoing investigation.

Egelston is due in Denver District Court for a hearing Monday morning.

The Denver Gazette reporter Carol McKinley and 9News contributed to this report.