By Shelly Bradbury
The Denver Post
DENVER — An assistant chief in the Denver Fire Department was fired last month after he brought an AR-15 rifle to a public park and loaded the gun during a mental health crisis in March, according to a disciplinary letter obtained by The Denver Post on Wednesday.
The city of Denver fired former Assistant Chief James Hart on Sept. 3 — six months after he drove around the metro area with a loaded AR-15 rifle and a bottle of whiskey and contemplated dying by suicide, the records show. Hart could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
The March 28 incident began after Hart’s wife confronted him about an apparent extramarital affair. Hart left work and was clearly upset, emotional and agitated, according to the disciplinary letter.
He ran into a subordinate firefighter in the parking lot as he left Fire Station 15 off Colorado Boulevard. When that firefighter asked what he could do to help, Hart asked him to take his gun, and gave the man a handgun he’d kept behind the driver’s seat of his truck.
Hart then drove to his home in west Denver, where he grabbed an AR-15 from the garage, got back into his truck and started driving. His brother — a Denver Fire Department captain — tried to stop Hart and gave chase, but Hart sped away, the records show.
Firefighter suicide prevention
The brother alerted police, worried that Hart would take action to harm himself or others, according to the disciplinary records. Hart then drove into Wheat Ridge and stopped at Anderson Park, near West 44th Avenue and Garrison Street. The park was crowded with families and children playing.
There, Hart parked, got out of the truck and took his AR-15 out of its carrying case. He got into the back seat of his vehicle and loaded the weapon, according to the letter. But he decided not to “act there,” because so many children and families were around, and instead drove away, according to the disciplinary records.
He then drove into Jefferson County and Golden, according to the records. He was speeding and drinking as he went, according to the disciplinary records.
“Assistant Chief Hart’s choice to drink, drive and then to load his AR-15 in an occupied public park demonstrates a serious lack of the integrity, ethics and character related to his position,” Denver Deputy Director of Safety Mary Dulacki wrote in a disciplinary letter.
She noted that his actions with the AR-15 rifle endangered members of the public.
“…If, heaven forbid, his actions were noticed, (they) could have foreseeably resulted in panic,” she wrote.
Hart eventually drove close to Golden Gate Canyon State Park, where he parked and fired a shot from the AR-15 into a hillside before leaving the gun in his truck and accepting help from his brother. He subsequently underwent mental health treatment and has since maintained sobriety, according to the records.
Dulacki found that Hart did not take appropriate responsibility for his actions in disciplinary proceedings — he denied speeding and claimed he only drank alcohol in his car when he was stopped, not when he was driving, according to the letter. He also violated department policy by having a gun in his truck on city property at Fire Station 15, Dulacki found.
He claimed that was a one-time lapse, but Dulacki found his claim was “not convincing.”
Denver Fire Chief Desmond Fulton recommended that Hart be demoted from assistant chief to firefighter 1st grade and terminated, but that the termination should be held in abeyance as long as Hart had no further disciplinary infractions. He noted Hart’s 32 years of service and previously exemplary disciplinary record.
Dulacki overruled that recommendation and fired Hart.
“Assistant Chief Hart is not being disciplined for suffering an emotional crisis; rather he is being disciplined for the willful choices he made that amount to policy violations,” she wrote
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