What two dead men in Denver should teach the rest of us about cars, courage, and Colorado law
Colorado car thefts are down more than 55% since 2021. We went from the worst state in the country to fourteenth. Thefts at Denver International Airport fell 87% in two years — from 713 in 2023 to 94 in 2025. Eight out of ten stolen vehicles get recovered.
That is real progress, and the people who worked for it earned the win.
Two Denver men were still shot dead this summer over cars.
Those two facts aren’t in conflict. Understanding why is the difference between a statistic and a decision you make at one o’clock in the morning.
What Happened
On June 24, around 1:15 a.m., a man in Montbello went outside to confront someone stealing his vehicle on the 15000 block of East Olmstead Drive. He was shot. He died at the hospital.
A week later, just before midnight on the 4300 block of North Pecos in Sunnyside, another man went outside when someone was breaking into his vehicle. He was shot and killed too. Denver police arrested a 14-year-old and a 12-year-old.
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas issued a public warning about the pattern. His words are worth quoting exactly, because he chose them carefully:
“We offer this warning, in no way to shame the victims for their attempts to protect their vehicles, but to bring awareness to this disturbing trend and to encourage everyone to call 911 if they see something suspicious or a crime in progress.”
He’s right not to shame them. I’ve spent twenty-five years in law enforcement and I understand exactly what those men felt when they heard glass break in their own driveway. That is your property, your street, your family asleep behind you. The instinct to go handle it is not cowardice or stupidity. It’s ownership.
The instinct is also, tactically and legally, close to the worst available option. Here’s why.
The Tactical Problem
Think about what you’re actually trading when you walk out that door.
Inside, you have everything. Walls. A locked door. Light you control. A phone already in your hand. You know the layout, you know where your people are, and the other guy doesn’t know you exist.
Ten seconds later you’re standing in a driveway at midnight and you have none of it. No cover. No backup. Your night vision is gone because you just came from a lit room. You are silhouetted against your own house. You don’t know how many of them there are — you saw one, and the one you didn’t see is the one that matters. You don’t know what they’re carrying. You are on their timeline, on their terms, at the distance they chose.
You gave away every advantage you had. You did it for a depreciating asset that is almost certainly insured, that gets recovered eight times out of ten, and that cannot be brought back if it’s traded for you.
Then add the part that makes this summer different: the suspects in the Sunnyside case were twelve and fourteen years old. A fourteen-year-old with a pistol he doesn’t respect, panicking in a stranger’s driveway, is more dangerous than a professional — not less. A professional has a plan and an exit. A scared kid has a trigger.
Assume anyone breaking into a vehicle is armed. Denver PD said it plainly, and the national numbers back it up: by 2022, a firearm was present in 62% of carjackings, up from 56% four years earlier.
The Legal Problem
This part I want you to read twice, because I hear it wrong in class constantly.
Colorado law lets you use reasonable and appropriate physical force to stop someone from taking your property. That’s C.R.S. 18-1-706. But that same statute is explicit that deadly physical force is only authorized under the terms of 18-1-704 — the defense-of-person statute. Not the property one.
Property does not justify killing. It never has in Colorado.
And “Make My Day” does not fix this. C.R.S. 18-1-704.5 applies to a dwelling. That’s the whole scope. Not your driveway. Not your yard. Not your detached garage. Not your car. The moment you step off your threshold to protect a vehicle, you have walked out from under the statute people assume protects them.
So what does justify deadly force? Under 18-1-704, you have to reasonably believe lesser force won’t do it, and that you or someone else is in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury — or that the other person is committing or about to commit robbery, kidnapping, sexual assault, or assault.
Notice what’s on that list. Robbery.
That’s the distinction almost nobody makes, and it’s the one that matters most:
- Someone is breaking into your parked, empty car. That is theft. That is a property crime. You are a witness, and going outside to become a participant is a choice with no legal upside.
- Someone takes your car from you, by force or threat, while you’re standing there. That is robbery — a crime against a person, with you in it. Your legal posture and your tactical problem are both completely different.
Same vehicle. Entirely different situation. The variable is whether you’re in it.
This is a plain-English summary to help you think, not legal advice. Confirm the current statutes and talk to a Colorado attorney about your specific situation.
The Skill Nobody Practices
Denver PD’s advice was “be a good witness.” Most people hear that as a consolation prize — do nothing, feel useless.
It isn’t. Being a good witness is a trainable skill, and almost no one has actually trained it. Try this the next time you hear something outside.
Stay inside and kill your interior lights. You can see out. He can’t see in. That’s the whole game, and you get it for free by not opening the door.
Call 911 first, then observe. Not the reverse. The clock starts when the call starts.
Report in an order dispatch can use. Location, number of people, direction of travel, then descriptions. For the vehicle: color, body style, make, plate — in that order, because color and body style are what an officer three blocks away can actually use.
Describe people by what won’t change. Height, build, skin tone, facial hair, gait. A hoodie comes off in an alley. A limp doesn’t.
Say out loud whether you saw a weapon. That single sentence changes how the responding officers approach, and it may change what happens to your neighbors.
Do not go to the window with a firearm in your hand. You will be the one that a responding officer sees first.
That’s five minutes of thinking you can do tonight, and it is worth more than any gear you could buy this weekend.
Where the Line Actually Is
None of this means be passive. It means know which fight you’re in.
Property is replaceable and insured. You are not. If a person is the target — if someone is coming for you, your spouse, your kid, in a driveway or a parking garage or at a red light — that is an entirely different problem, and it is one you should absolutely be prepared to solve.
But being prepared to solve it isn’t a range problem. Punching paper at seven yards in good light, with a shot timer and no adrenaline, is not the same skill as making a decision in a dark driveway with a twelve-year-old holding a gun.
Twenty-five years in law enforcement put me in more than six hundred real confrontations — arrests, standoffs, searches that went sideways, people who decided the fight was worth it. Almost every one of them was decided in the first few seconds, by whoever read the situation faster and moved first.
That’s the gap. It’s trainable, and it’s the entire reason this business exists.
Come train the decision, not just the shot.
John Rader
Colorado Tactics, LLC
Slow is smooth… Smooth is FAST!
720-464-SHOT | 720-464-7468
Sources
- Denver7 — Denver police cite ‘dangerous pattern’ after 2 vehicle-theft confrontations turn deadly
- 9News — ‘Dangerous pattern’: Denver Police issue warning after two vehicle owners shot, killed while confronting suspects
- The Cherry Creek News — Denver Police arrest school-aged kids for a car-theft-related murder
- Colorado Public Radio — Colorado’s ranking and reputation improve as car thefts plummet statewide (March 27, 2026)
- Council on Criminal Justice — Trends in Carjacking: What You Need to Know
- C.R.S. 18-1-704 — Use of physical force in defense of a person
- C.R.S. 18-1-704.5 — Use of deadly physical force against an intruder
- C.R.S. 18-1-706 — Use of physical force in defense of property