Gunshots ringing out from a backyard sent Commerce City neighbors scrambling for their phones, and police say the man they found responsible was not only drunk but barred by a protection order from touching a firearm in the first place. Officers also say he kicked one of them while being taken into custody.
Commerce City police received multiple 911 calls after residents heard gunshots in their neighborhood, according to KDVR. Responding officers traced the shots to the backyard of a home in the 16000 block of East 102nd Avenue. Police ordered everyone inside the house to come outside, and they took a man who had been drinking into custody.
Officer Allegedly Kicked During Arrest
The man reportedly kicked one of the responding officers as he was taken into custody, the outlet's report states. He was also subject to a protection order that prohibited him from accessing guns and consuming alcohol, a restriction police say he violated twice over by drinking and firing a weapon in the first place.
A protection-order violation requires that the restrained person was personally served or had actual knowledge of the order’s terms. Colorado law specifically includes consuming alcohol when an order forbids it, and possessing a firearm in violation of qualifying civil or mandatory protection orders. The offense is generally a class 2 misdemeanor, with specified circumstances—including some criminal protection orders or prior violations—making it a class 1 misdemeanor. The state statute makes the order’s terms and the person’s notice of them central to the case.
Colorado law separately makes possessing a firearm while under the influence of intoxicating liquor a class 1 misdemeanor, so the reported combination of drinking and gun possession could carry consequences beyond any alleged protection-order violation. The same statute also classifies recklessly or criminally negligently discharging a firearm as a class 1 misdemeanor. Those provisions do not establish what charges prosecutors will file in this case, but they show how state law addresses the conduct described by police. Colorado’s current criminal code spells out both offenses.
The station's report also notes that shooting a gun in a residential area is illegal in most scenarios, a detail underscoring why neighbors' panicked calls brought officers to the scene so quickly. In a quiet suburban pocket of Commerce City, the sound of gunfire from a backyard is rarely something residents can simply shrug off.
Colorado’s separate felony for illegal firearm discharge is narrower than a general ban on backyard gunfire: it applies when someone knowingly or recklessly fires into a dwelling, another building or occupied structure, or an occupied vehicle. The available account says shots were fired in a backyard but does not specify whether they were directed at any such target, so it does not establish whether that felony provision applies. State law classifies that offense as a class 5 felony.
What Comes Next
The case highlights how quickly a backyard disturbance can escalate once alcohol, a firearm, and an existing court order collide. Beyond the gunfire itself, the alleged kick aimed at an officer adds another layer of potential consequences for the man now in custody.
No further details on the man's identity, the exact date of the incident, or how the case will proceed through the courts have been made public.
