Former police officer given probation

He held Black CSU football player at gunpoint and knelt on his neck

A 66-year-old former police officer was sentenced to four years probation Tuesday after he held at gunpoint a Black Colorado State University student who was going door-todoor as a roofing salesman in Loveland last year.

Scott Gudmundsen held both the salesman and his white colleague at gunpoint and forced them to the ground during the June 11 incident, but then knelt on the neck of the Black man — CSU Rams football player Barry Wesley — and jammed a gun into his back while saying that the pair were members of antifa and terrorists.

He told Wesley he wasn’t going to kill him, but that the police would, according to a criminal complaint.

“I can still feel how hard and how fast my heartbeat was,” Wesley said in court Tuesday. “I can still remember the amount of adrenaline in my body … I was certain my death was going to be another hashtag, another reason for people to protest, because it was clear that to Mr. Gudmundsen my Black life did not matter.”

Gudmundsen pleaded guilty to a single felony count of menacing with a weapon — prosecutors declined to file hate crime charges — and his public defender on Tuesday said the former officer was experiencing a mental health crisis during the attack and believed he was part of a “culture war.”

Gudmundsen, who lives with post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered a traumatic brain injury, was experiencing delusions at the time, said Ryan Markus, his public defender. He falsely believed, for example, that an injury to his knee — a splinter that had become septic and required surgery to remove — was actually caused when a protester smashed his knee with a brick, Markus said.

“I truly believe that Mr. Gudmundsen was suffering from mental health issues,” Markus said. “That he acted on training he had had for years, much of which has since been changed, and rightly so.”

Gudmundsen apologized in a brief statement Tuesday and said he was in a fog for six weeks after the surgery on his knee.

“I’m trying to scratch my head and figure out what happened and why I acted the way I did,” he said. “… I’m horrified by my behavior. The anesthesia I was under apparently had a lasting effect on me and I was strange in the head for about six weeks. … I apologize to the victims. I’m sorry.”

Eighth Judicial District Court Judge Michelle Brinegar sentenced Gudmundsen to probation after noting that she was constrained by the terms of the plea deal and could not sentence him to prison.

She chose probation, instead of a 2½-year sentence to community corrections, to ensure Gudmundsen was supervised for the longest period of time, she said in court.

“There is no justice I can give that is adequate to the victims in this case,” she said, and addressed Wesley directly.

“This is the best I can do. And I really do feel this is the most appropriate sentence to honor the trauma you’ve endured.”

She noted that the case was not a “run of the mill” menacing case, but rather was a “targeted, hateful attack.”

Wesley’s attorney, Qusair Mohamedbhai, who previously petitioned the court unsuccessfully to force prosecutors to file hate crime charges against Gudmundsen, said Tuesday that those charges should have been filed.

“The lack of hate crime charges in this case is outrageous,” he said. “This case absolutely warranted hate crime charges and Mr. Wesley and his attorneys look forward to addressing this situation at the legislature.”

The sentence prohibits Gudmundsen from possessing weapons, using alcohol or drugs, and requires that he undergo mental health treatment. It carries a 90-day jail term, but Gudmundsen, who spent nine months in jail while the case was pending, was credited for time served. He also will be monitored with a GPS for between three and six months and will be required to complete 100 hours of community service.

Wesley and his colleague had both asked Brinegar to sentence Gudmundsen to the maximum possible time.

“I am living, breathing and speaking to you today,” Wesley said. “There are thousands of Black families who have shared this experience, except their loved one never came home.”