The Denver police officer accused of shooting six bystanders while aiming at an armed man in Lower Downtown in July 2022 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault on Tuesday and was sentenced to probation.
Brandon Ramos, 30, can no longer work as a police officer in Colorado after the third-degree assault conviction for the July 2022 shooting near 20th and Larimer streets.
As part of the plea agreement, 14 other criminal charges filed against Ramos were dismissed, and prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that Ramos be sentenced to 18 months of probation. Ramos could have otherwise faced up to a year in jail on the misdemeanor conviction.
Three people who were shot by Ramos spoke in court during his sentencing Tuesday about the ongoing recovery process, both physically and emotionally.
“It was only by the grace of God that nobody was killed on the night an officer unleashed bullets into a crowd of innocent civilians,” said Willis Small, who was shot in the foot.
“The world doesn’t seem as safe or familiar as it used to be,” said Yekalo Weldehiwet. “It’s like I lost something, and finding my way back feels really tough.”
Ramos and two other Denver police officers confronted Jordan Waddy, 23, around 1:30 a.m. July 17, 2022, as bars closed in the busy LoDo nightlife district. The officers believed Waddy was carrying a gun and followed him through streets crowded with pedestrians. They confronted Waddy, who pulled a gun from his clothing and was holding it by the slide on top of the gun when the officers fired, body camera footage shows.
Three officers fired, shooting Waddy, but also injuring six bystanders. A grand jury later determined that only Ramos’ shots hit the bystanders and that the other two officers did not injure any bystanders. Waddy and the bystanders all survived.
Ramos, who fired from a different angle than the other two officers, could see there was a large crowd of people behind Waddy and should not have fired, the grand jury found. Waddy never turned the gun toward Ramos or directly threatened him, the grand jury found.
“The police shot me and five other innocent bystanders,” Bailey Alexander said in court Tuesday. “The police. How is that possible? They are supposed to protect us from the bad guys, right? … It was a police officer who hit me. It was a police officer who pulled the trigger. It was Mr. Ramos.”
The shooting was the highest-casualty police shooting in Colorado since the state started collecting data in 2010. In a statement Tuesday, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said the conviction reflects that Ramos did not intend to hurt the bystanders.
“I believe a conviction for third-degree assault, for recklessly causing the victims’ injuries, is the appropriate resolution in this case,” she said in the statement.
Denver police and the police union defended the police officers’ actions in the days after the incident, and then-Mayor Michael Hancock said he was surprised that Ramos was criminally charged.
“It (was) incredibly difficult and tragic not only for the victims, but also for the city,” District Court Judge Nikea Bland said before sentencing Ramos Tuesday. “As a citizen of this city, it’s really polarized the city in a way that is not helpful for us to continue to grow together. … The plea agreement is appropriate based on what I have seen about the case, and ultimately, despite the fact Ramos is not serving time in custody, it’s a life-altering plea agreement.”
Ramos has been suspended without pay from the police department since the charges were filed.
Attorney Qusair Mohamedbhai, who is representing some of the victims in a lawsuit against Ramos and Denver police, said Tuesday that the lawsuit can move forward now that the criminal case is resolved. He added that he’s not aware of any broader changes to police training or policy to come from the shooting.
“The Denver Police Department will never learn from their mistakes,” he said. “They will always dig in, put their heads in the sand, and never be able to engage in critical self-reflection.”
Denver police spokesman Jay Casillas said Tuesday that the agency “updated and enhanced” its officer training around crowd control and guns after the shooting, with changes made in late 2022 and into 2023.
