Man accused of causing $1 million in damage to Colorado Supreme Court building told police he was on meth, fentanyl

The Arizona man accused of breaking into the Colorado Supreme Court’s building earlier this month told police he was hallucinating during the incident after smoking methamphetamine and taking fentanyl pills. Brandon Olsen, 44, is charged with two counts of arson, criminal mischief and reckless use of a gun in connection with the Jan.

2 break in at the Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center in Denver. Olsen is around 1:15 a.m., threatening an unarmed security guard and then starting a fire on the seventh floor of the courthouse before eventually surrendering to police. He is accused of causing more than $1 million in damage to the building, court records show.

He faces three felony charges and a misdemeanor. After the incident, authorities were quick to say the break in did not appear to be related to threats against Colorado Supreme Court justices in the wake of on the state’s primary ballot because of his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, and the riot at the U.S.

Capitol by his supporters. But Denver police would not elaborate on why investigators believed the incident to be unrelated. The police department blacked out Olsen’s statements from an arrest affidavit the department released on Jan. 2. A less redacted version of the affidavit obtained from Denver County Court on Friday reveals that Olsen told police officers that he’d taken several fentanyl pills and smoked methamphetamines before the incident, and that he felt like people were chasing him.

Olsen is accused of crashing into another vehicle at 13th Avenue and Lincoln Street — just outside the judicial center — before he shot out a window to enter the building. He told officers he was driving fast because he wanted to avoid the people he thought were chasing him, and that he entered the Colorado Supreme Court building only because it happened to be the closest building to the crash, according to the less redacted affidavit.

Olsen told officers he believed he was hallucinating and that he used a lighter to set fire to papers inside an office. He said he shot at several windows to try to clear out the significant amount of smoke that the fire created. Olsen eventually noticed police outside the building and called 911. “I’m the guy holed up in the building that they’re surrounding,” he said, according to the affidavit.

He then left his gun on a table and surrendered to police at around 3 a.m. The fire was extinguished by the building’s sprinklers, which caused significant water damage throughout the building, authorities have previously said. Olsen told police he struggles with addiction and has relapsed in the past.

His ex wife that Olsen was experiencing a mental health crisis during the incident. She said he unexpectedly called her on New Year’s Eve to say he was driving from his home in Arizona to Colorado to try to see their children. Olsen also recounted that trip to officers, according to the less redacted affidavit.

The courthouse has been closed since the incident, but court officials said Thursday that the Colorado Supreme Court and Court of Appeals will reopen to the public Tuesday. Other offices in the building will remain closed..