DENVER — The City and County of Denver has agreed to pay $225,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by two people who were mistakenly detained at gunpoint by Denver Police officers during a 2024 felony traffic stop that ended with an officer accidentally firing his weapon.

The settlement resolves the civil case brought by Jessica Sjostrom and Rex Hickman, who sued several Denver police officers after they were pulled from their car, handcuffed, and detained during what police later acknowledged was a case of mistaken identity. Court records show the parties reached a “complete settlement” and agreed to vacate a jury trial that had been scheduled for April.

At Monday’s Denver City Council meeting, officials said the payment brings the city’s 2026 total for taxpayer-funded legal settlements to $784,500.

The lawsuit stemmed from a May 26, 2024, stop near Brighton Boulevard and 29th Street in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood. Officers had been responding to a report of a man threatening someone with a gun while driving a red Saturn with Colorado license plates. Instead, officers stopped Sjostrom and Hickman, who were in a maroon Mercury with Kansas plates.

For more on this story and others, please visit the Denver Gazette’s news partners 9News.