A Colorado police officer was fired and later lost his certification for five years after body-camera footage showed him pressing a handgun against the head of a subdued man and threatening to shoot him, but the video itself might never have become public if an investigative journalist had not noticed the officer’s unexplained termination months later.
Attorney John Bryan, host of The Civil Rights Lawyer, examined the May 6, 2025 incident with investigative journalist Andrew Fraieli, founder of the nonprofit Blue Surveillance, who spent months seeking records from the Wheat Ridge Police Department after discovering that former officer Carlos Bowdre had been terminated in July 2025 without a public explanation.
What Fraieli eventually obtained was footage that even Bowdre reportedly acknowledged would look “horrifying” to the public, showing a foot chase that began over a suspected stolen laptop and ended with Bowdre arriving after two other officers had already brought the man to the ground.
A Laptop Report Turns Into A Foot Chase
Bryan said Wheat Ridge police were called after a man reported that his wife’s laptop had been stolen and believed the suspected thief was standing near a Valero gas station at 3201 Wadsworth Boulevard.
The caller described a Hispanic man wearing a red hat, red sweatshirt and dark pants, and four officers, including Bowdre, responded to the location.
When officers saw a man wearing a red sweatshirt, he ran.
Bryan emphasized that police did not yet have probable cause to arrest him, had not witnessed him commit a crime and did not know with certainty that he was the person who had stolen the laptop. However, he later explained that the caller’s description, the reported location of the laptop and the man’s decision to flee likely gave officers reasonable suspicion to briefly detain him and investigate.
That distinction matters because the controversy was not simply that officers chased or handcuffed the man. Bryan said the chase and even the initial tackle were arguably reasonable under the circumstances; what happened after the suspect was already on the ground was the far more serious issue.
Officer Arrives With His Gun Drawn
During the pursuit, Bryan said Bowdre ran with his firearm unholstered, at one point sweeping the gun in the direction of another officer while moving and then climbing over a roughly four-foot fence with the weapon still in his hand.
Officer Corbett eventually caught the fleeing man and tackled him, while Officer Sandoval arrived next and began securing his hands.
By the time Bowdre reached them, according to Bryan’s review of the footage, the man was already lying face down with two officers controlling him.
Bowdre nevertheless approached with his firearm in his left hand and pushed the muzzle against the man’s temple while threatening, “Give me your hands now or I’ll put a bullet in your head.”
The suspect repeatedly asked what he had done.
Bryan said the footage showed both of the man’s hands behind his back as Bowdre kept his right hand on the back of his neck, while another officer was already applying handcuffs.
Even after one wrist had been cuffed, Bryan said Bowdre continued pressing the gun against the man’s head, briefly pulled it away while still pointing it at him, and then placed it against his head again after both hands had been secured.
That sequence is difficult to square with an immediate need to use deadly force, particularly when no officer had been told the suspect was armed.
Written Report Did Not Match What The Camera Showed
The discrepancy became even more significant when investigators compared the footage with Bowdre’s written use-of-force memorandum.
According to Bryan, Bowdre wrote that the suspect had been hiding his hands underneath his body, ignoring repeated commands and creating concern that he could reach a weapon.
Bowdre said he therefore placed the muzzle of his firearm against the man’s head to make him comply.
During a later internal-affairs interview, he reportedly maintained that the man had been actively resisting and had kept his hands concealed for approximately 30 seconds.
The body-camera footage, Bryan said, contradicted that account because the entire encounter after the takedown lasted only around 20 seconds, and the suspect’s hands were already visible when Bowdre arrived.
Bowdre also acknowledged during the internal investigation that the incident did not “look pretty” and would appear terrible if seen publicly.
According to Bryan, he went even further, saying it could make the officers look like bullies or “a bunch of gang members.”
That admission later became one of the reasons Fraieli became so determined to obtain the footage.
Prosecutors Drop The Criminal Case
Bryan said the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office eventually dismissed the criminal case against the man who had been chased because of Bowdre’s conduct.
The prosecutor handling the case reportedly described what happened as one of the most egregious incidents he had personally seen and concluded that continuing the prosecution was not in the interest of justice.
Bryan then analyzed the encounter under the Supreme Court’s use-of-force framework and argued that Bowdre’s conduct amounted to a clear case of excessive force.
The suspected offense involved a laptop theft, there had been no claim that the man was armed or dangerous, and by the time Bowdre arrived he had already been tackled and restrained by other officers.
In Bryan’s view, the only person facing an immediate threat of death or serious injury at that moment was the suspect himself.
That assessment was Bryan’s legal analysis rather than a court ruling on civil liability, but the department’s own response was severe enough: following an internal investigation, the police chief terminated Bowdre on July 31, 2025.
His appeal to the city manager was denied the following month.
Journalist Notices An Unexplained Termination
That could have been the end of the public story if Fraieli had not been regularly monitoring Colorado’s Peace Officer Standards and Training database.
Fraieli explained that the state database identifies officers who were terminated for cause, investigated or otherwise subjected to significant employment actions, but often gives little or no explanation of what actually happened.
Through Blue Surveillance, he monitors those entries and files public-records requests for termination letters, internal-affairs files, employment applications and other material that can provide the missing context.
When Bowdre’s case appeared, Fraieli requested records from Wheat Ridge and obtained a disciplinary memorandum describing the body-camera footage, Bowdre’s comments about how bad it would look publicly and the prosecutor’s decision to abandon the underlying criminal case.
Once he read those details, he wanted to see the video itself.
That request turned into a months-long fight.
Department Initially Said The Video Did Not Exist
Fraieli told Bryan that the Wheat Ridge Police Department initially responded by saying there were no relevant records, an answer he found impossible to reconcile with the disciplinary documents he already had.
The footage was still within the period when the department was legally required to retain it, he said, and because it involved reported police misconduct, he believed Colorado law required its release.
After further discussions, Fraieli learned that the underlying criminal case involving the chased man had been sealed, and the department was relying on that circumstance when responding as though no relevant records existed.
Fraieli challenged that interpretation and eventually sought legal assistance from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
After attorneys argued that the department still had to release the body-camera footage, Wheat Ridge eventually turned it over, roughly three months after Fraieli began pressing for it.
The episode raises a troubling transparency question even apart from the force itself. Once an agency has fired an officer over conduct serious enough to derail a criminal prosecution, keeping the underlying footage outside public view makes meaningful outside scrutiny much harder.
Bowdre Could Potentially Return To Law Enforcement
Fraieli said Bowdre ultimately agreed to relinquish his Colorado peace-officer certification for five years rather than permanently losing it.
That means the sanction was a suspension rather than a lifetime revocation.
Fraieli noted that Bowdre could potentially seek certification again after the suspension period, pursue certain detention jobs that do not require the same certification or move to another state.
Bryan questioned why the matter apparently did not lead to a criminal prosecution of Bowdre himself, arguing that an ordinary citizen who chased someone down, placed a gun against that person’s head and threatened to kill them would likely face serious charges.
Fraieli said he had found no indication of a criminal investigation or prosecution against the former officer.
For both men, the broader issue extends beyond one Wheat Ridge case.
Fraieli created Blue Surveillance because he found that journalists often lacked the money and time required to pursue expensive police records, while state databases could show that an officer had been disciplined without telling the public why.
His project is intended to fill that gap by collecting records, tracking officers across agencies and making information about misconduct easier for journalists, attorneys and members of the public to access.
The Bowdre footage became a striking example of why that work can matter. The department itself investigated the incident, fired the officer and reported the termination to state authorities, but the public still needed an outside journalist to spend months fighting for the video that showed what had actually happened.
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
