The Boulder police officer facing felony
stalking and harassment charges is accused of retrieving two of his own guns
from work while on medical leave, then threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend
and one of her friends -- both police dispatchers -- before shooting himself,
according to a police report released today.
Broomfield police arrested Officer Christian
Dale McCracken, 32, of Frederick, on suspicion of stalking, a class 5 felony,
and harassment, a class 3 misdemeanor, just after midnight Saturday after being
alerted by the Boulder Police Department.
The ex-girlfriend, a 27-year-old Boulder police
dispatcher who lives in Broomfield, also went to investigators Friday. She and
McCracken had been friends for several years and occasionally dated during that
time. More recently, she helped care for McCracken while he was on inactive
duty due to a head injury.
According to the report, she told police
McCracken recently began to behave erratically and appeared "disconnected
from reality."
Reached this afternoon, the woman declined to
comment.
Last August, McCracken suffered a concussion
after being assaulted by a suspect he was trying to apprehend on the University
Hill. Treven Hunter, 23, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault on a peace
officer, and is scheduled to be sentenced in Boulder on Thursday.
In March, the dispatcher told police she
received a call from McCracken asking to end their relationship. A short time
later, though, he began calling her to try and get back together. Despite
telling him she did not want to resume the relationship, the woman told
investigators she received five to six phone calls or 10 to 20 text messages a
day from McCracken, as well as Facebook posts.
In April, she began receiving messages from
McCracken that led her to believe he was following her, according to the
report. He would make comments about where she had been with a friend -- also a
Boulder police dispatcher -- and the nature of their relationship.
Last Thursday, the woman said, McCracken began
pounding on her door while she and the other dispatcher were inside after going
out to dinner. He accused her of cheating on him with the other dispatcher, and
later called her and told her that her friend "better watch his
back," according to the report.
Several other Boulder police dispatchers and
officers then began telling the woman that McCracken often would ask them
questions about her whereabouts and that they saw him hanging around the police
station. Several also said McCracken accused them of conspiring against him.
On Friday, Boulder police called the woman to
tell her that McCracken had retrieved two of his own guns that he kept at the
police station while on medical leave, according to the report. McCracken then
told his roommate -- a fellow Boulder police officer -- that he was going to
shoot the male dispatcher in front of his ex-girlfriend, kill her and then go
up into the mountains to commit suicide.
The roommate convinced McCracken to go to
Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette to be evaluated. Broomfield
police, having been contacted both by Boulder police and the ex-girlfriend,
arrived at the hospital to arrest McCracken on Friday night.
The woman informed investigators that McCracken
told her that he had stalked and plotted to kill his ex-wife after their
break-up several years earlier. He also told her he suffered from
post-traumatic stress disorder after a tour in the Middle East while in the
Marine Corps.
She said he told her both these things before
his head injury.
Speaking generally, Melissa Wolack, a speech and
language pathologist at Boulder Community Hospital's Mapleton Rehabilitation
Center, said concussions can cause changes in mood and behavior. They also can
cause people to misjudge situations and fail to see the consequences of their
actions.
"It can also impair their problem-solving
ability," she said. "They misconstrue situations or fail to properly
assess situations. They can be impulsive, and they don't behave
rationally."
Boulder police Chief Mark Beckner on Monday said
Boulder police conduct internal investigations whenever an officer is charged
criminally. Internal discipline is not dependent on a criminal conviction.
McCracken is on suspension, but he has not been on active duty as a police
officer since his injury last summer.
Beckner had declined to discuss the allegations
against McCracken.
McCracken remains in custody in Broomfield on
$100,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.