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Ryon Olthoff’s Facebook page, featuring the memorably defiant profile shot seen here, lists him as having worked at “various positions” with the Colorado Department of Corrections in 2009-2010.
Presumably, one of those gigs was “inmate” — and he’ll likely get a chance for a do-over after being charged with attempted murder in a long standoff with police kicked off by a domestic violence incident.
Olthoff hasn’t always gotten bad press. In 2005, he was featured prominently in a Glenwood Springs Post Independent story about Rifle Correctional Facility inmates wielding chain saws and cutting back brush in an attempt to help prevent fires. “It keeps us busy,” he told the paper. “It’s better to be prepared and get everything thinned out now than have a fire come up and devastate everything this summer.”
The article adds that Olthoff’s sentence (for, reportedly, a 2002 burglary) could have kept him in jail until 2012, but he hoped his work on the fire remediation crew might win him an earlier release — and clearly, it did.
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So what did he do to go back behind bars? The arrest report on view below in its entirety tells a good portion of the tale. At about 6:45 a.m. on September 12, according to the document, Denver police responded to a call about a man with a gun at a 7-Eleven on the 300 block of Santa Fe Drive. Upon their arrival, the clerk pointed them to a nearby building where the suspect had gone. At that address (830 West 3rd Avenue), they saw a man later identified as Olthoff emerge from a second story window and jump on top of a garage. One of the officers ordered Olfthoff to stop, but instead, he allegedly hopped to the ground, aimed a silver handgun at the cops and opened fire before running into an adjacent building, at 860 West 3rd Avenue.
Where he stayed until early afternoon, when members of the SWAT team finally dragged him out.
What set off Olthoff?
Continue reading for more about Olthoff’s bust, plus a video of the standoff and the police report. Officers reviewing the 911 call that brought them to the scene note that it came from a woman who said her boyfriend, Olthoff, was “flipping out” because she was planning to leave. He got physical with her, then stormed out with that silver handgun in his waistband, heading to the store across the street.
For these various activities, Olthoff has been formally charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of first-degree assault, one count of first-degree burglary, two counts of false imprisonment, two counts of third-degree assault and one count of possession of a weapon by a previous offender. He’s due in court at 9:30 a.m. to be formally advised of this laundry list — one serious enough that he may not be allowed to do fire remediation in the future.
Look below to see Olthoff’s latest mug shot, followed by a Denver Post video about the standoff and the aforementioned arrest report.
More from our Colorado Crimes archive: “David Orton gets 180 years for 4-hour standoff with thirteen cops that ended with ass shooting.”
