Black man who killed in self-defense fights to make wrongful prosecution claims stick

A Black man named Stephan Long shot and killed two white brothers on an I-25 exit ramp in 2023 after, he says, one attacker reached through his car window and the other tried to pull him from the vehicle with his wife, newborn, and toddler in a trailing car. Denver police treated it as road rage, questioned Long without fully covering his Miranda rights, and produced a probable cause statement that prosecutors used to charge him with double murder for the next fourteen months.

Under pressure from the Denver City Council, the district attorney eventually dropped the charges. Long is now suing the two officers and the city, arguing the prosecution reflects a double standard applied to Black men who defend themselves, while the officers argue qualified immunity should end the case before it starts.

Chief U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico, a Trump appointee, allowed that probable cause existed absent self-defense, but noted that at some point in an investigation it becomes clear there isn’t any. He also suggested Long may be suing the wrong people, since the district attorney’s office carries broader immunity than the officers do, and ordered an amended complaint within three weeks.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.