When Veronica Seabron saw her son head out to his own birthday party with friends, she never expected that would be the last time she'd see him.
On Feb. 8, Jalin Seabron, a 23-year-old father-to-be, was shot seven times in the back by a Douglas County deputy during an active shooter incident at the Main Event entertainment center at Highlands Ranch
Police body cam footage shows the moments that led to his death. Since that night Veronica Seabron has been fighting for answers. Why did her son need to die?
Could Douglas County Sheriff's deputies have acted differently that night by de-escalating the situation?
Veronica remembers how happy she was just 24 hours before the shooting
Veronica Seabron had just found out she was about to become a grandmother. Jalin and his mom have always been close. Even their birthdays are just days apart. On Feb. 7, Jalin threw a breakfast party at the Village Inn. Sitting at the table were his 89-year-old great-grandmother, grandmother and his mother. Though they were celebrating Jalin's birthday, he wanted his mom to have something, so he handed her a little box tied with a blue ribbon
“I opened the box and right in there was the pee stick and the ultrasound, the little gift wrap and everything, and immediately I was just overtaken with joy.”
The excitement about the pregnancy filled Veronica’s home. She remembers that there was music playing and lots of talk about the happy couple’s future. Jalin and Keylonie Funery, his girlfriend, had just signed a lease for an apartment, and he hoped to give up work as a security guard and begin a new career as a truck driver in order to support his new family.
Veronica Seabron’s last memory of her son was on the night that Jalin and his friends were going out to celebrate his birthday. Jalin was at her home joking with everyone.
“His brother asked, ‘Well, let me know when you guys are going to decide on names and I want to help.’” She recalled Jalin looking at his phone and saying, “‘I already have a list.’ He had a list of boy names, a list of girl names, and all of 'em began with J. Well, no matter boy or girl, that baby was going to be a J.”
Then her world turned upside down
On Feb. 8, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call about shots fired in the women's restroom at Main Event in Highlands Ranch. Upon responding, another incident occurred in the parking lot: a deputy shot and killed Jalin Seaborn who was carrying a gun.
It was around midnight when Veronica got news from some of the partygoers who went to Jalin’s birthday party. She said everything around her seemed frenetic. There were many voices on the phone, she couldn’t understand what was going on, and then she heard, “He's gone. He's gone.” The phone call turned into a video call. “I could see him laying on the ground and I knew what they were talking about then, and I could hear his friends saying, ‘My brother's gone. My brother's gone.’”
Veronica immediately drove to the scene. She saw a lot of lights and officers and people milling around. The ambulance had taken two people to the hospital. One person was already dead.
She knew then her son was gone.
Veronica was put into the back of a squad car and taken to Douglas County Sheriff's Office. She tried to make inquiries but no one was talking to her. Finally, someone at the sheriff’s office gave her a business card with contact numbers for the excessive force officer and a crime advocate came down to sit with her as she waited to see if she could see her son.
She waited and waited until she realized, “If you're not going to give me any information, I can't see my baby. Why am I here? I stayed there for two hours. I didn't go home until four o'clock in the morning.”
Jalin's half-sister, Nevaeha Crowley-Sanders, 23, was arrested following a fight in the women’s restroom inside the entertainment venue. Deputies allege Crowley-Sanders shot and injured another woman.
Now Veronica’s life has changed. In the past she was a person who could never sit still, always doing something in the house. Now, days will go by as she struggles with grief
“It's empty. This is the biggest hole, the darkest hole, the most quietest hole. My mornings are just empty. They're empty. He used to call me during his shift. As soon as he gets off, he's at my house, waking me up, waking me up. Even in his annoying times, I miss the annoying times. It's not just the good times. I miss the annoying times. I miss him calling me.”
The release of body camera footage from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office
No matter how deep the grief, Veronica continues her fight to find answers as to why her son was shot by a deputy. One of the hardest things a mother in these circumstances has to do is watch the police body camera footage.
The raw footage shows Jalin in the Main Event parking lot standing by his car on the driver's side. He then walks around the back of the car and heads to the passenger seat with his arm bent and the gun pointing upwards. A Douglas County deputy runs behind Jalin and shouts "Put down the gun” twice, then fires seven shots into Jalin’s back.
Questions have been raised about whether Jalin had time to comply with the deputy’s orders.
The attorney for the Seabron family, Tyler Glover released the raw footage himself so that the public could see.
Douglas County chose not to release the raw unedited version, but rather a narrated version to explain events that led to Seabron’s death.
Veronica found the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office version difficult to stomach.
“The nerve, the audacity, the lies,” she said. “You know what you did, but you have to protect yours. It's so contradicting compared to some other cases where they're supporters of carrying weapons, but now you turn it to benefit you in this situation, and you didn't know my son. You didn't know what you pulled up to.”
CPR News reached out directly to Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly about this case. He responded in a statement, saying he would not do “any more media interviews about the Jalin Seabron case until after the independent Critical Incident Response Team investigation is concluded, and the District Attorney’s Office determines if charges will be filed.”
On Monday, March 31, 2025, Douglas County released the autopsy report detailing that seven shots killed Jalin. It also showed that he had consumed a lot of alcohol. According to the autopsy, his blood alcohol content was high and would have impaired his judgment.
Veronica is waiting for the Critical Incident Response Team investigation report which is due at the beginning of April. She hopes that this report looks at the conduct of the unnamed deputy. The incident lasted only 10 seconds from when the Douglas County sheriff’s deputy opened the door of his patrol car until he fired the seven shots that killed Jalin Seabron.
Questions have been raised by community leaders and advocates about whether de-escalation techniques could have been used. To get a better understanding of those techniques, CPR News asked Denver Chief of Police Ron Thomas to explain what de-escalation means, the procedures and whether it can be used in all situations.
What to know about de-escalation
To be clear, Chief Thomas is not commenting on the Douglas County case or on any specific case. He is only providing information about how police in general use de-escalation tactics.
He describes de-escalation as “slowing an incident down, trying to remove stress, tension, anxiety that sometimes can be involved in really any situation, but certainly in situations where the community is engaging with the police.”
Thomas points out that officers need to remain calm as possible. “Officers aren't too excited or emotional, and make sure we really slow things down and communicate well.”
Thomas says there are protocols called integrated communications and tactics. The protocols begin with a conversation to de-escalate, or calm an individual, and to de-escalate a situation overall. Further, there is one point person who is in contact with officers on the scene so that the suspect can follow one set of commands rather than several voices and multiple commands to avoid confusion and increased anxiety.
“Again, just plain conversation, just communicating, letting that person know what you want from them, what you need from them,” said Thomas. “We had a situation not too long ago where the individual had a gun in their hand and officers were saying, ‘You need to put that gun down. You put your gun down, I'll put my gun down.’”
Thomas insists talking to suspects is important, especially if a situation is fraught.
“It's really just communication with people, even when it's tense and even when we're very near a deadly threat situation. I think that that's where we begin, is with conversation. Sometimes things escalate so quickly that there really is no time for any conversation or at least much conversation at all. But we really try to engage with people whenever we can just to again, try to de-escalate. An individual who is in imminent danger hostage, another member of the community who is in imminent danger, then that may get us too short of time to engage in de-escalation. But we try to, whenever time and opportunity allows.”
