The Douglas County sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a 23-year-old man while responding to a shooting at a Highlands Ranch arcade has been cleared in the man’s death.
Deputy Nicholas Moore’s use of deadly force was necessary to defend himself and others in the fatal shooting of Jalin Seabron on Feb. 8 outside the Main Event, according to a decision letter from 23rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler.
Moore was responding to reports of an active shooting at the Highlands Ranch arcade and entertainment center just before midnight. He rolled up to the scene with lights flashing but no siren on, Brauchler said at a news conference Monday afternoon.
That’s when he saw Seabron in the parking lot holding a gun. He exited his vehicle with a rifle and told Seabron three times to drop his gun, but never identified himself as a police officer. When Seabron didn’t drop his gun, Moore fired nine rounds at him — seven of which entered Seabron’s body.
“One of the questions that’s asked by the law is, why not less lethal?” Brauchler said at the conference. “There’s gotta be a reason why. And the reason deputy Moore says he did not consider less lethal in the situation was because it was an active shooter situation. He engaged a suspect that was holding a firearm, and he was the only law enforcement officer at the time in the area.”
Brauchler showed several still images from different angles of Seabron with a gun in his hand in front of the Main Event. Law enforcement authorities have said that when Seabron turned his head toward Moore, not raising his weapon from his side, the deputy fired at him.
He said Moore claims he made eye contact with Seabron before the final fatal moment.
“I find that the shooting, as tragic as it was — and I know everyone out there thinks to themselves there are a million different decisions made by multiple people that could have avoided this — that it was a justified use of deadly lethal force under Colorado law,” Brauchler said.
Brauchler aknowledged that Moore never identified himself as an officer of the law to Seabron — “he surely did not do that.” But he said state law allows a police officer to forgo that announcement if they believe doing so “would unduly place peace officers at risk or would create a risk of death or injury to other persons.”
“And Deputy Moore says at that moment, ‘I felt like I had to act quickly to try to stop the threat,’ ” Brauchler said.
But the family of Seabron, who was at the arcade with his pregnant girlfriend and his two sisters to celebrate his birthday, said they weren’t satisfied with the district attorney’s conclusion. His mother, Veronica Seabron, told reporters outside the Douglas County Justice Center in Castle Rock there is “no justification for why I should be standing here without my 23-year-old son.”
“There is no justification for as many shots fired. There is no justification for criminalizing him before anything was ever released,” she said. “So to say that this is a justified shooting seems one-sided. This will never be justified to me.”
Jalin’s father, Dennis Crowley, said his son, a Black man, “deserved much better.”
“He was gunned down like a dog and no humanity was shown in Officer Nick Moore’s heart,” he said. “Nick Moore, if you’re afraid of my community, resign. Don’t become a police officer.”
Attorney Tyrone Glover, who is representing the Seabron family, told reporters Monday that Jalin Seabron, was just trying to protect his girlfriend and sisters from someone inside the venue, where some sort of disagreement had erupted. He was focused on a person with a gun emerging from the Main Event, Glover said, and not on the deputy who was coming up behind him.
“He didn’t fire a shot, didn’t point the gun, didn’t even raise his weapon at the officer,” he said. “(Moore) gave no time for Jalin to comply. By the time Jalin even realizes what is going on, if he ever truly did, he’s getting shot. That’s not justified.”
Body camera footage shows that when the deputy arrived at the scene, he immediately exited his vehicle and ran toward Seabron with a gun he had assembled and prepared while driving to the arcade.
“Hey!” the officer is heard shouting in the video. “Drop the gun! Drop the gun! Now! Drop it!”
Glover said the family will continue to pursue justice through “other pathways and avenues of justice.”
Douglas County sheriff’s officials have said the Saturday night shooting inside the Highlands Ranch arcade started as a fight in the bathroom between Seabron’s stepsister, 23-year-old Nevaeha Crowley-Sanders, and a friend she had known since high school. Authorities said Crowley-Sanders pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and shot at the 22-year-old victim, her friend, eight times.
Crowley-Sanders faces 104 charges in the shooting, including five counts of felony attempted murder. Six other people were arrested on suspicion of being accessories to the shooting as well as multiple assault, weapons and drug charges.
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