A former Greenwood Village police officer charged with killing a 17-year-old boy during an armed confrontation in an Aurora neighborhood was found guilty on a lesser charge of manslaughter by an Arapahoe County jury Tuesday.
Adam Holen, 38, was initially charged with second-degree murder and felony menacing in the shooting death of 17-year-old Peyton Blitstein on Nov. 24, 2021, outside of a home in the 4900 block of South Addison Way.
Holen was a Greenwood Village police officer from 2016 until the beginning of November 2021, when he resigned.
According to police reports, Holen confronted a group of teenagers, including Blitstein, about their careless driving in the neighborhood.
Holen was drunk at the time of the shooting, according to police reports, and had a blood alcohol level of .193, twice the level Colorado law considers legally intoxicated.
Witnesses and Holen told police differing accounts of what happened during the argument, but both Holen and Blitstein fired their guns.
Blitstein was shot four times in the chest and once in the arm and was pronounced dead later that evening, according to police reports. Holen was shot once in the hip and treated at a hospital.
Holen pleaded not guilty to all charges and was found not guilty of the menacing charge, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. He faces 2 to 6 years in prison for manslaughter and is set to be sentenced on May 20.
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