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Police arrested Brandon Olsen, 44, on charges of arson, robbery
and burglary, saying he fled the scene of a car crash shortly
after 1 a.m., broke into the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial
Center in downtown Denver and shot out a window.
Police said Olsen took keys from an unarmed security guard whom
he held at gunpoint and made his way up the building's seventh
floor, where he fired shots and lit a fire in a stairwell that
was soon extinguished by the sprinkler system.
Olsen surrendered to police without incident at about 3 a.m.,
the Denver Police Department said in a statement.
Although the suspect was taken to hospital and cleared by
medical personnel, nobody was injured, the Colorado State Patrol
said in a statement.
It was unclear whether Olsen was represented by a lawyer who
could make a statement in his defense.
The motive for the break-in was unclear, but the Colorado State
Patrol all but ruled out any connection to the Colorado Supreme
Court's recent decision over Donald Trump's presidential
candidacy.
The Colorado Supreme Court disqualified the former president
from the state's Republican primary ballot for his role in the
Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
The court ruled that Trump was barred by a U.S. constitutional
provision that prohibits anyone who "engaged in insurrection or
rebellion" from holding public office.
Justices then became the target of harassment and possible
threats.
A preliminary investigation showed a "high probability" the
break-in was unrelated to recent threats against the justices,
the state patrol said in the statement.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Additional reporting
by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Nick Zieminski and
Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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