A concealed carrier who appeared to retreat from an advancing man before shooting him was then shot by Denver police moments later while still holding his gun, creating what gun rights activist Colion Noir described as one of the worst possible scenarios for an armed civilian.
In a video examining the case of Luis Johnson, Noir argued that the encounter cannot be reduced to a simple story about a lawful gun owner, an aggressor, or officers responding to danger. Instead, he said it exposed how quickly self-defense can move from one life-threatening confrontation into another, even when the person with the gun may be trying to avoid further violence.
Video presented by Noir appeared to show Johnson backing away while another man followed him, recorded him at close range, and repeatedly challenged him to fire. Johnson eventually shot the man, then entered the lobby of his apartment building with the pistol still in his hand.
Denver officers arrived with limited information, followed Johnson into the building, ordered him to drop the weapon, and fired nine rounds as the encounter unfolded within seconds.
Johnson survived both shootings, but Noir said the legal question surrounding the first use of force may still remain unresolved.
Johnson Appeared to Retreat From the Confrontation
Noir focused heavily on footage recorded before the first shooting, saying Johnson was moving backward and repeatedly trying to create distance.
The other man continued advancing while holding a camera near Johnson’s face and taunting him to pull the trigger. Johnson could be heard telling him to leave, but the confrontation continued until the shooting occurred.
“Watch what Luis Johnson is doing here because this is the whole thing,” Noir said. “He already has the gun out and he’s retreating.”
To Noir, those movements suggested that Johnson did not want to shoot, despite believing the situation had become dangerous enough to draw his weapon.
He blamed the other man’s behavior on a combination of fear, pride, and aggression, arguing that the sight of the gun should have ended the confrontation rather than intensified it.
Noir described ego as one of the most dangerous forces in the encounter. In his view, the advancing man appeared to recognize Johnson’s hesitation and treat it as weakness, continuing to press until Johnson believed he had run out of alternatives.
That interpretation comes from Noir’s reading of the video, and the footage alone cannot fully reveal what either man was thinking. Still, the visible retreat and continued pursuit are important details in any discussion of whether Johnson reasonably feared serious harm.
Drawing the Gun Created Its Own Legal Problem
Noir also acknowledged a difficult point for Johnson: he had already drawn the pistol before firing.
A firearm should not be displayed merely to frighten someone or win an argument, Noir said. Drawing it generally means a person believes the threat has reached the point where deadly force may be legally justified.
“If you pull it, you better be already justified in using it,” he said.
That left Johnson in a dangerous gap. He had the gun in his hand and may have believed he needed it, but he still appeared desperate to avoid shooting.
Noir said Johnson’s hesitation was understandable, but it also prolonged a confrontation in which one wrong movement could have been fatal. Once a weapon is introduced, every second becomes more dangerous for everyone involved.
Johnson also did not reholster the pistol after the first shooting.
Noir stopped short of blaming him for that decision, noting that a person who has just fired at another human being may be shocked, disoriented, or unable to follow a perfect tactical sequence. Even so, the gun remaining in his hand became crucial when police arrived.
This is where self-defense advice often becomes too clean compared with reality. Training may describe clear steps after a shooting, but panic, noise, injury, and confusion can make even simple actions difficult.
Police Arrived With Almost No Context
According to the account presented by Noir, Denver officers responded shortly before 2 a.m. after a gunshot-detection alert and a report of a shooting near 16th and California streets.
Someone reportedly flagged down a marked police vehicle and told officers that Johnson had just shot his son.
That was nearly all the information they had.
The officers had not seen the earlier video. They did not know Johnson had been backing away, did not know what had led to the shooting, and did not know the building he entered was his home.
They saw a man identified as the shooter walking into a lobby while holding a pistol.
Noir said he had sympathy for Johnson’s mental state, but he also criticized the decision to move into the building. From the officers’ position, Johnson became an armed silhouette retreating into a hallway with little cover and no clear explanation.
Running inside may have been instinctive, especially if Johnson was stunned after the shooting. Strategically, however, Noir said it made the police encounter much more dangerous.
The officers followed and repeatedly ordered him to stop and drop the gun.
Dropping the Gun Required a Movement Officers Could Misread
Noir described the police commands as creating a nearly impossible trap.
To obey an order to drop a firearm, Johnson had to move his hand. Yet officers who believed they were facing an armed shooting suspect could interpret that same movement as the beginning of an attack.
“The command requires motion and the fear punishes motion,” Noir said.
The official account, as described in the video, said Johnson rotated toward officers with the gun held in front of him. Some people who viewed the footage believed the firearm was moving downward instead.
Noir said he could not fairly settle that dispute by studying individual frames because neither he nor viewers experienced the pressure the officers faced in the hallway.
He also refused to portray the officers as villains. They believed an armed man who had just shot someone could turn and fire at them, and the entire event developed in seconds.
However, Noir argued that understanding why officers fired does not mean the outcome should be accepted as unavoidable.
He questioned whether police training should allow a brief moment for visible compliance after an order is given, especially when the command itself requires the armed person to move.
That is a difficult demand in a real armed encounter, but it is also a fair issue to raise. A command has little value if the person receiving it has no realistic time to follow it before officers shoot.
Prosecutors Cleared the Officers
Noir said the district attorney concluded that the Denver officers were legally justified in using deadly force against Johnson and did not charge them.
That decision addressed whether the officers reasonably believed they faced an immediate threat based on what they knew at the time.
It did not determine whether Johnson had been justified in shooting the first man.
Noir stressed that these were separate legal questions. The officers could be legally justified in shooting Johnson even if Johnson had also acted lawfully in defending himself moments earlier.
That possibility makes the case especially troubling.
A person can survive an aggressor, be mistaken for the continuing threat by arriving police, and still face investigation or prosecution over the original shooting. Legal justification in one part of the encounter does not automatically protect everyone involved in the next.
Noir said he had been unable to confirm that Johnson’s legal exposure from the initial shooting had fully ended.
If that remained unresolved, Johnson could still face legal fees, court proceedings, and uncertainty over his freedom after surviving two shootings in the same incident.
Self-Defense Did Not End With the First Shot
Noir rejected the idea that the case proved armed self-defense itself was the problem.
He argued that removing Johnson’s gun from the story would still leave an aggressive man pursuing him and refusing to disengage. The pistol did not create the confrontation, Noir said, but gave Johnson a chance to survive it.
At the same time, the case does not offer a comfortable victory for gun owners. Johnson’s weapon may have saved him from one threat while placing him in extreme danger when police arrived.
That is the central lesson concealed carriers should take from the incident.
A defensive shooting is not the finish line. The armed person must still recognize responding officers, follow commands, avoid appearing threatening, receive medical treatment, make careful statements, and prepare for a legal investigation.
Noir described pulling the trigger as only the halfway point of the fight, with the second half taking place through lawyers, prosecutors, and courts.
Noir Said Awareness Must Come Before the Gun
Noir ended his discussion by warning gun owners against treating the firearm as their first answer to danger.
“Situational awareness is your first weapon,” he said. “The gun is just the last one.”
Avoidance, distance, and early recognition of a developing confrontation can prevent a person from ever reaching the point where a weapon must be drawn.
Once that line is crossed, events may move faster than anyone can control. The aggressor may continue advancing, witnesses may misunderstand what happened, and police may arrive knowing only that someone with a gun has fired.
Johnson’s case raises difficult questions precisely because more than one person may have believed he was responding to a deadly threat.
Johnson may have believed the advancing man left him no safe choice. Officers may then have believed the armed Johnson was about to shoot them.
The result was a concealed carrier surviving the first confrontation only to be struck by police gunfire inside his own apartment building moments later.
As Noir presented it, the case is not a clean argument for or against firearms. It is a warning that self-defense can remain dangerous long after the original attacker has stopped, and that surviving the first shooting does not guarantee surviving everything that follows.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
