It appears authorities have collared the latest criminal suspect to make a mockery of Colorado’s dangerously lax competency laws. The public can breathe a sigh of relief — for now, at least.

The Gazette reported on Friday that Ephraim Debisa, 21, had been arrested for allegedly bringing a gun to the University of Northern Colorado campus in Greeley — he’s not a student there — following his recent release from the Weld County Jail.

It turns out Debisa is the same man who had made headlines only a couple of weeks earlier after an attempted murder charge against him was dropped because he was found incompetent to stand trial and unlikely to be restored to competency. He walked free.

As we noted here at the time, Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams issued a public statement pointing to a 2024 state law that forced him to turn Debisa loose. 

The suspect had been arrested last April and charged with second-degree attempted murder after an altercation with another man that was captured on video. The victim suffered a brain injury. Debisa’s lawyers asked the court to determine whether he was competent to stand trial. It wasn’t because he was mentally impaired, which is the usual premise for an incompetency finding, but because he was uneducated and was not from the United States. He did not understand how the U.S. justice system works, his lawyers argued. The court agreed.

Reams was then required to release Debisa from custody, thanks to 2024’s House Bill 1034, signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis. It required the court to drop a case if the suspect is found incompetent to proceed and unrestorable to competency.

The sheriff expressed his disbelief and exasperation in his press statement.

“I just can’t wrap my mind around the outcome of this case or the prior cases,” he said. “It’s just a complete failure of the criminal justice system.”

As we also noted here, the same 2024 law required the release of Soloman Galligan in Arapahoe County earlier this year after what police say was an attempt last year to kidnap a young boy from the playground of an elementary school in Aurora. Galligan was found mentally incompetent — as he had been following previous alleged crimes.

Suspects who are truly incapable of grasping the charges facing them have a constitutional right not to be adjudicated on those charges. There is a process for assessing their competency and if they are found incompetent, for treating their disability in an attempt to return them to the justice system. 

But if dangerous suspects are deemed permanently incompetent, and charges are dropped, there must be a legal provision for automatically keeping them in the custody of a mental health facility. The law currently makes no such provision — and that’s absurd.

No dangerous suspect, regardless of competency should be allowed to roam free — whether for mental illness — or as in Debisa’s case, incredibly, due to foreign birth. 

After last week’s incident, Debisa was charged with trespassing, possession of a weapon on school grounds and carrying a concealed weapon. His bail was set at $1 million.

Given the publicity around Debisa’s case, it’s less likely a court will spring him loose again simply because, as a foreigner, he purportedly doesn’t understand U.S. justice. But there’s no guarantee — and won’t be until lawmakers close this legal loophole.