An independent review that investigated UCCS’ response to the incidents leading up to and following the February double homicide was released following a nearly 10-month-long investigation.
Nicholas Jordan, 25, is accused of shooting and killing his roommate and UCCS student Sam Knopp, 24, and Pueblo resident Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, in the early morning hours of Feb. 16 in Jordan and Knopp’s dorm room at the Crestone building on campus.
Under the recommendation of Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet, the CU system hired the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck to conduct the investigation in March. It was headed by Jason Dunn, a former U.S. attorney and Colorado deputy attorney general, John Suthers, a former U.S. attorney, Colorado attorney general, and the 4th judicial district attorney and attorney Rosa Baum.
The review found that at no time during the events leading up to the homicides did any employee or agent of UCCS act in bad faith or with willful and wanton disregard for the safety of others.
“While the review finds improvements we can and will make, it does not find that any individual at this university was responsible for the violation of policy or that anyone knowingly contributed to this tragic outcome. We have staff and faculty members here who carry guilt to this day, and it is important to acknowledge that there is ultimately one individual responsible for these crimes. And that is the person who committed the crime,” Sobanet said during a Dec. 5 press conference.
The review highlighted 13 recommendations for the university, including improving its tracking of multiple reports of behaviors of concern from a student, adding more people and documentation to UCCS’ CARE Team, reviewing their Emergency Operations Plan and threat assessment protocol, and improving training for employees in UCCS Housing.
Sobanet said that UCCS has implemented or is in the process of implementing all the recommendations listed in the review.
To fulfill the recommendation of reviewing the Emergency Operations Plan, Emergency Manager Kris Parsons along with any department that has a role in the plan will be reviewing the current plan and providing changes by Dec. 16. The plan will then be submitted to Sobanet for approval in spring 2025.
The Emergency Operations plan hasn’t been updated since 2016. The emergency manager who served before Parson submitted an updated plan before the Feb. 16 events that was not approved. He resigned from the position after claiming the university was not prepared for the crisis, according to reporting from KOAA.
The former emergency manager told KOAA he filed a Clery Act Complaint to the U.S. Department of Education, expressing his concerns about the university’s response to the shooting and emergency preparedness.
Sobanet said the university has been contacted about the report and is cooperating, adding that the updated draft of the Emergency Operations Plan that the former emergency manager proposed was long and hard to follow and that UCCS decided it better to continue with the existing plan.
Sobanet noted that the institution will continue to make improvements and learn even after they have completed the recommendations from the review. “We’re a learning institution, right? We’re all about continuous improvement and how we can do things better,” she said.
Analysis leading up to the homicides
The review provided details of events that occurred leading up to the shooting, including numerous complaints made by both Jordan and Knopp regarding roommate disputes and problems over Jordan’s conduct.
In addition to these complaints, Jordan had several harassment reports made against him by female students during the fall 2023 semester, including one student who cited Jordan’s harassment as the reason she was withdrawing from classes according to the review.
According to previous Scribe reporting, Jordan often made women uncomfortable at his previous housing in Lion Village. “I never felt physically in danger by him nor did any of my roommates, but he did make us uncomfortable,” said Jordan’s former neighbor Elena Franco.
In January, Knopp began submitting complaints to UCCS Housing, stating that Jordan was smoking weed and cigarettes and had a woman living with him who wasn’t enrolled at UCCS, according to the review.
Also in January, custodial staff reported that the toilet in Knopp and Jordan’s dorm was overflowing and had soaked into the living room and bedroom carpets at one point, Jordan’s room smelled like weed and that a bag of trash in Jordan’s room was emanating a strong odor, prompting them to note concerns of a “severe violation of health policies,” according to the review.
On Jan. 15, Jordan and Knopp had another dispute and UCCS police responded. The third roommate living with them told police that Jordan had threatened to kill Knopp, but Knopp told the officer he didn’t recall that happening. The situation was concluded as an “unfounded” complaint by the officer.
Both before and after the dispute, the university had been offering Knopp and Jordan opportunities to relocate to another dorm, and both refused multiple times for varying reasons, Sobanet said at the press conference.
Knopp initially refused the emergency relocation offer, telling a UCCS Housing employee that there was no reason he should have to leave a place he’s been in for over a year because Jordan moved in during the middle of the fall semester, according to the review.
Knopp later changed his mind and was slated to move out of the dorm room the day he was killed.
“UCCS staff made various and timely attempts to assist Nicholas Jordan and Samuel Knopp with their interpersonal conflict and housing issues, including offering both students other housing alternatives at appropriate points in time,” the Brownstein team said in the review.
Brownstein noted that the process of releasing Jordan of his housing contract, which he tried to do three times, appeared to be overly bureaucratic and not “sufficiently results-oriented” and recommended the university make it less so, ensuring that serious incompatibility issues between roommates are more quickly identified and resolved on top of improving tracking of reports.
The review also noted that referral of a student for disenrollment is not expressly stated in the CARE Team’s policy as a possible course of action for students being disciplined or a directive to remove or release a student from campus housing, and Sobanet said the university is in the process of amending that along with other things in the housing policy, like how housing will respond to roommate disputes. These changes should be finalized this month.
For the recommendation to improve tracking on reports, Sobanet said the campus was already in the process of migrating to a better system that will track multiple reports made by students before the homicides. This software, called Maxient, was implemented at the beginning of August.
Since the homicides, the university has been providing additional resources to the VAPA community, which Knopp was part of. In addition to Knopp’s death, a fatal stabbing of a VAPA professor over the summer has led to an emphasis of the VAPA community’s mental health, Sobanet said.
“This is a group of people who I care so much about, and, through trauma, have become very close to,” Sobanet said, adding that she’s been working with heads in the department to make sure enough mental health resources are available. “From day one, we focused on our VAPA community … We have been in lockstep to take care of the VAPA faculty, staff and students.”
Sobanet emphasized the mental health resources available to the UCCS community, stating programs such as TELUS Health are available to all.
Jordan’s legal team entered a plea of not guilty for the murders at an arraignment hearing on Nov. 22. He was given until Jan. 31 by an El Paso County judge to decide if the not guilty plea would be by reason of insanity.
His trial date is set for April 7 and is expected to take two weeks. Another trial for Jordan’s assault of a deputy while being held in the El Paso County jail will occur on April 21.
He is being held in jail on a $5 million bond. The 91-paged report can be found here.
A UCCS entrance sign. Photo by Josiah Dolan.