A Colorado man allegedly brandished a gun at a Latino man and his girlfriend, who made a U-turn in the man’s driveway after getting lost. Now the man, 58-year-old Paul Favret is facing felony and misdemeanor charges.
New York Daily News reports that Chris Ochoa and his girlfriend were driving to a friend’s wedding rehearsal dinner in Sedalia—a town about 30 miles south of Denver—when their GPS sent them to the wrong house.
Upon realizing the GPS’s mistake, Ochoa turned the car around to get back to the main road and called his friend for directions. But when he was driving back, “a large red truck pulled in front of me and cut me off, blocking the road,” Ochoa wrote in a Facebook post about the incident, which happened on June 12. Favret “immediately got out of his truck and pointed a gun at us.”
According to the police’s incident report, Ochoa said that Favret, the homeowner, ran them down and shouted, “I want to blow your fucking head off.” Ochoa’s girlfriend called 911.
“I stayed as still as possible because I knew he was in a rage, I knew he could shoot any time, and I knew I could die at any time based on how he was reacting,” the 26-year-old driver wrote in his statement. “As a minority, I felt in danger.” Ochoa is Mexican-American, and from the photos he posted—which his girlfriend took—Favret appears to be white.
According to NBC News, Favret is the founder and CEO of the oil and gas company Resource Energy Partners. However, the company’s team page has been taken down from its website since the incident. “After being made aware of this last week, Resource Energy Partners placed Mr. Favret on administrative leave and retained outside counsel to conduct a thorough review of the incident,” a statement released by a company’s spokesperson read.
Favret is facing five criminal charges, including two felony menacing charges and three misdemeanors related to firearms.
“The Facebook post in question does not portray an accurate version of the events. However, I deeply regret my actions that day,” Favret told KUSA-TV through a company spokesman.
“I had no way of knowing the identities of the individuals in the vehicle,” Favret added. “I just saw the unknown vehicle very close to the home at a time when we were not expecting any visitors and our property is clearly marked with our address and is about 1/2 mile from their destination.”
