DENVER—A man shouting death threats was subdued and arrested after shattering a window at the State Capitol on Monday, a witness and authorities said, four months after the State Patrol shot and killed a gunman in the building.
The State Patrol said Derrick Shumate, 28, of Denver became agitated and punched the window after trying to get in through a locked door on the Capitol’s east side. Patrol spokesman Ryan Sullivan said a trooper from inside the building approached him but Shumate ran away, ignoring commands to stop. Another trooper approached him outside the building and Shumate put up his hands and laid down on the ground, he said.
Shumate, who wasn’t armed, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor criminal mischief and booked into Denver County Jail, Sullivan said. Sullivan did not know if he Shumate had retained an attorney. He was being held on $750 bail.
There were no reports of injuries.
“He was yelling out a bunch of stuff and being verbally disruptive,” Sullivan said. “He was upset that he couldn’t get in and he wanted to get in through that door.”
Jeff Osenkowski, a construction worker who was at the Capitol, said Shumate appeared to be carrying a soda bottle when he tried to enter.
Osenkowski wasn’t sure if the man used the bottle to shatter a window in the door.
“He yelled, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ He was yelling about drugs. He pointed to me and said he was going to kill me,” Osenkowski said.
“He said people on drugs don’t feel pain. He was threatening to kill everybody,” Osenkowski said.
After state troopers subdued the man, he shouted, “Kill me, kill me, give me death now,” Osenkowski said.
In the July incident, 32-year-old Aaron Snyder was shot by a patrolman assigned to Gov. Bill Ritter’s security detail after Snyder showed a weapon and said, “I am the emperor and I’m here to take over state government.”
Snyder first went to an outer room of Ritter’s offices in the Capitol, but the security detail escorted him back into a hallway, where the confrontation took place. Authorities said Snyder had refused the patrolman’s orders to back down.
No metal detectors were in place at the Capitol at the time, and several doors were open to visitors.
Since then, however, all visitors have been required to enter through a single entrance equipped with metal detectors and an X-ray machine for bags.
Last month, a legislative committee approved spending $855,000 for more security at the Capitol through the end of the current fiscal year in June.
The measures include additional troopers and security guards, the metal detectors and X-ray machine and hand wands.
