A councilman from Colorado has dramatically lost his position after reportedly shooting a 17-year-old in the face as the teen searched for a scenic location to take his homecoming photos.
Brent Metz, aged 39, was ousted from his role last week following a recall vote by the shocked residents of Mountain View, a small 12-square-block area near Denver.
He is facing trial on four felonies related to the September incident including assault, menacing and illegal discharge of a firearm.
The identity of the teenager, who survived, has not been released.
“The incident casts a shadow on our town,” former mayor Jeff Kiddie, who played a key role in the recall effort, told the Daily Mail.
‘To have somebody make that rash judgement, accidental or not, just the act of pulling the firearm on two teenagers? … It just doesn’t rise to that level of need.’
According to the arrest affidavit, the 17-year-old and his friend were driving through the mountain community of Conifer on Wednesday, September 11, when they spotted a home on with a scenic lake, dock and vistas.
The pair parked at the gate and walked up the long driveway, knocking on the door to ask for permission to take pictures at the site for homecoming the following weekend.
When nobody answered, the teens returned to their white Audi, parked on the road, where one ‘took out his school binder and was writing a note to leave for the homeowner.’
Brent Metz, 39, was a sitting member of Mountain View Town Council, just outside of Denver, when he was charged with four felonies in connection with the shooting of a teenage boy in September 2024
Metz was elected to Mountain View Town Council in 2023 but recalled last week; he is pictured with his fellow council member and live-in partner, Brittany Loucher, center, who called the police to report the teens trespassing in September, and Mayor Emilie MItcham
Unbeknownst to them, the property, valued at nearly $1.5million, belonged to Metz.
His girlfriend, who also serves on the Mountain View council and lives with Metz at the home, spotted the teens and called both the councilman and police to report trespassing.
But Metz, listed on voting records as a registered Republican, arrived first. He pulled his truck, a Black GMC Sierra, alongside the passenger side of the teens’ car ‘so the Audi could not pull forward.’
The 6’3, 225-pound councilman got out of the truck, walked towards the Audi, ‘pulled a handgun from his holster and pointed it towards them,’ the affidavit continues.
The next thing the teens knew, the gun went off, the windshield shattered and Metz exclaimed: ‘Oh s***, my gun went off.’
A Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy arrived minutes later, responding to the call from Metz’s girlfriend, Brittany Loecher.
He found the victim ‘bleeding heavily from his face’ with ‘blood running down his arm,’ a white t-shirt held to the teen’s face to put pressure on the wound.
‘The right corner of his mouth appeared to be missing flesh and he also had [wounds] on both the right and left side of his nose which were actively bleeding’ and ‘also had swelling around both of his eyes,’ the affidavit states.
Ahead of the May 20 special election vote, Metz insisted he was innocent in an appeal to constituents and said he ‘never intended to harm anyone’
Mountain View’s former mayor Jeff Kiddie, pictured left, was among the recall committee; he tells Daily Mail that it’s ‘a blight on the town … to have somebody make that rash judgement, accidental or not’
The deputy noted the bullet hole in the windshield and handcuffed Metz, who did not answer when asked whether he’d shot the gun but did ask for a lawyer.
The victim told the deputy that he didn’t think Metz had intentionally shot him ‘and did not see the gun but only heard the shot,’ according to the affidavit.
‘He also said [Metz] tried to help him after the gun went off,’ it continued.
The teenage victim was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where the deputy was told doctors ‘believed there was a fragment of a bullet located in [the victim’s] head.’
Metz was charged with one count of assault in the second degree, two counts of menacing and one count of illegal discharge of a firearm.
He pleaded not guilty in April to the charges, all felonies.
By that time, however, Kiddie and others had spent months working towards a recall.
‘We were expecting a resignation of some sort, and when it became perfectly clear that that wasn’t the case, that’s where we formed a recall committee,’ the former mayor says.
Metz sent a letter to constituents before the vote offering his side of the story, describing the incident as ‘an unintentional discharge of a firearm and the injury of another person.
‘I am thankful that this individual appears to have quickly recovered, and I want to assure you that I never intended to harm anyone,’ he said in the letter, provided to the Daily Mail by Metz’s lawyers.
Addressing constituents and neighbors querying why he wouldn’t just resign, he insisted upon his innocence and asked: ‘What would you do, if you were wrongfully accused of a crime? However much easier a choice this would be, would you abandon your sworn obligation to your neighbors and community?’
The community provided its answer in the recall vote. More than 60 percent of voters decided to oust him, replacing Metz with candidate Ryan Debner, according to Ballotpedia.
When contacted separately by Daily Mail, Ms Loecher responded through Metz’s lawyer, who complained it was ‘disrespectful’ to seek comment from the sitting public representative regarding the recall and the shooting.
‘Brittany has authorized me to inform you not to contact her directly regarding Mr Metz’s criminal or recall matters,’ Christopher R Decker wrote to Daily Mail.
Misspelling his client’s name, he added that Locher was ‘confident that Mr Mets (sic) will be found not guilty, as he is presumed, and as all the facts will be established at trial.’
Mountain View Mayor Emilie MItcham did not return Daily Mail requests for comment.
A pre-trial court date for Metz is scheduled for June 23.
