DENVER — Stephan Long, the man accused of killing two men in a June 13 shooting on Interstate 25, says he was fearful for his life before he pulled the trigger.
Long, who was arrested moments after the shooting and later charged with two counts of first-degree murder, was released on bond last month. Prosecutors dropped one of the murder charges against him in mid-August. Long is claiming self-defense.
In his first interview since that shooting, Long told 9NEWS his attorney advised against talking about specific facts of the pending case. But he said he was afraid he was going to die during the encounter with the two men on the highway that afternoon.
“I was attacked,” he said.
Long said that afternoon he and his wife had just signed papers on a new apartment for their family. He said they took separate cars to visit the apartment and were driving to drop a car off when the attack happened. Long said his wife and two young children were in the car behind him when the shooting happened.
According to an affidavit for his arrest that day, Long told investigators the two men pulled up next to him on the highway and started yelling at him. He told police they then cut him off and stopped in the middle of I-25 near Eighth Avenue.
“I tried to get away before. I tried to get on the emergency lane and like leave past them before they blocked me in, so I couldn't even like pass them to exit the highway before anything happens,” he told 9NEWS. “I tried to get away before the whole attack even happened.”
But he couldn’t.
During an interview with police after his arrest, he said the passenger in the car got out and approached him, according to the affidavit. Long told investigators the man began hitting and grabbing him through the open window.
“[I was] scared in that moment, just fearful,” Long said in an interview with 9NEWS. “I didn't know what could happen to me. I didn't know what their intent was.”
According to the affidavit, Long pulled out a gun and shot the man attacking him. As he was trying to pull away, he told investigators the driver of the car that cut him off jumped and grabbed onto his window. Long told investigators he shot that man and continued driving.
“It was just a panic. It was traumatizing,” Long told 9NEWS. “I could lose my life that day, and not be able to be here and raise my kids.”
Denver Police said an undercover detective was on the highway that day and witnessed the shooting. The detective followed Long to the corner of 13th and Meade, and radioed to other marked Denver police officers, who arrested him.
Long said he didn’t call police right away because he wanted to get his family to safety.
“It was a fight or flight, and I did both,” he said.
The two men Long shot were later identified as Damon and Blake Lucas, brothers who family said were on their way to a job interview at the time of the shooting. 9NEWS reached out to family members of the victims after speaking to Long, but they didn’t respond.
Long, who spent five months in the Denver County Jail, said he spent time in therapy working through the trauma, which included acknowledging the tragedy for the Lucas family.
“I can definitely understand where the other families coming from,” he said. “I have lost people, my family to violence.”
“This wasn't that type of situation. I was never the aggressor. I never tried to go on my way to hurt anyone.”
Outside of a few traffic offenses, Long had no real criminal history before the shooting. He told 9NEWS he bought the gun he used in the shooting after moving back to Denver from college, noting that the crime rate in the city was rising.
“[It was] just for protection, and me having two kids to look after, a wife to take care of, a family -- and I took a basic firearms course in college as well,” he said. “So just after getting my education on firearms, just for protection, and I had the right tool and everything was registered."
Long’s family has spent the past five months fighting the charges against him. His sister Sierra Long said she was numb and confused after Long was arrested.
“He's always been just that calm person and I don't -- I didn't understand why this happened at all,” Sierra Long said. “I can only imagine the fear with having his son and daughter and spouse behind him witnessing this.”
“I always wonder what was going through my brother's mind. Like, I know he was scared.”
The family started attending Denver City Council meetings, asking council members to pay attention to the case during public comment periods.
Their testimony prompted 11 members of the council to send a letter to Denver District Attorney Beth McCann in early October comparing Long’s case to another in Denver where a white man shot and killed a Black 12-year-old who stole his car. The man claimed self-defense. He was never arrested, never charged, and his name was never released.
“We have been hearing from advocates and family members about Stephan Long for several weeks in City Council’s General Public Comment Session and want to ensure there isn’t a double standard being exercised here,” the letter from Council President Jamie Torres said. Ten other council members signed the letter.
Torres said McCann responded by saying she was still reviewing the case. A spokesman for McCann told 9NEWS her office would not comment on a pending case.
Weeks after the letter from council, McCann’s office dropped one of the murder charges against Long.
“I still believe this is a clear-cut case of self-defense,” said Alexander Landau, an advocate with the Denver Justice Project who is assisting the family. “I believe that this case highlights critical flaws in our criminal justice system and the application of self-defense and the way that it is offered or afforded to people of color.”
Landau argues Long was exercising a Second Amendment right to arm and defend himself in a dangerous situation.
“I ask how much pain, how much violence does a Black man have to endure before it's OK for him to claim self-defense?” he said.
Long is due back in court at the end of November.
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