Judge Stephen E. Howard, chief judge of the Eighth Judicial District for Larimer and Jackson* counties, Thursday dismissed a petition filed by a Larimer County woman who sought to have guns removed from the police officer who shot and killed her son in 2017.

Susan Holmes filed a petition under Colorado’s new red flag law, which went into effect on New Year’s Day, on Jan. 9. 

The law allows a family or other household member to seek a court order removing firearms and ammunition from someone who is believed to be a risk either to themselves or to others.

Holmes is neither a family nor household member; in the petition, she claimed to have a child in common with Colorado State University Capt. Phillip Morris. 

That claim is false, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Whether Holmes will face perjury or other charges is unknown, although Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said an investigation into Holmes’ claims on the petition is underway.

Holmes’ son, Jeremy, was shot and killed by Morris and another CSU police officer on July 1, 2017. The Larimer County district attorney deemed the shooting justified.

Morris was represented by a state attorney from the higher education unit in the Colorado Department of Law. 

Attorney General Phil Weiser commented after the judge’s decision that the extreme risk protection order “allows law enforcement and family or household members to ask a judge to temporarily remove a firearm from a person who poses a significant risk to themselves or others. The law is designed to save lives.

But in this case, Weiser continued, the judge “properly ruled against granting the petition. Ms. Holmes is neither law enforcement nor a family or household member. 

“What the hearing today demonstrated is that there are protections in the ERPO law to prevent people from abusing it. Abuse of this important law undermines the very fabric of its critical purpose, which is to protect public safety.”

A call to Weiser’s spokesman asking if Weiser supported filing charges against Holmes has not been returned.

To date, at least six petitions seeking firearms removal have been filed in Colorado since the law went into effect. A petition filed on Jan. 6 in Lincoln County was dismissed the same day.

Correction: the eighth district is Larimer and Jackson counties.