THE CHALLENGE

Jalin Seabron was a beloved 23-year-old Black and Latino man from Denver — a graduate of Grandview High School and a youth ambassador and alumnus of the Crowley Foundation, known for his kindness, charisma, and commitment to uplifting others. He had just learned he was going to be a father, and was celebrating his birthday on the night his life was taken by Douglas County Deputy Nicholas Moore.

On February 8, 2025, a fight and shooting broke out inside a women’s restroom at the Main Event in Highlands Ranch, an incident Jalin was not involved in. As gunfire erupted, Jalin, legally armed, was escorting his pregnant girlfriend out of the venue to safety. Within seven seconds of arriving on scene, Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Moore opened fire on Jalin. Moore arrived on the scene guns ablazing without identifying himself, issuing a warning, or taking any time to assess the situation. Jalin was shot seven times, in the side and back. He never fired his weapon.

This killing happened in Douglas County — nearly 90% white, one of the most vocally pro-open-carry jurisdictions in Colorado, a county that has even opted out of state legislation restricting firearms in sensitive public spaces. The same county that celebrates the right to bear arms afforded Jalin, a Black man lawfully carrying and defending his family, no such benefit. Deputy Moore had used deadly force before, in a 2022 incident also deemed justified — a pattern of escalation that, rather than raising alarm, would later be cited by the DA in Moore’s defense.

On April 7, 2025, District Attorney George Brauchler announced that his office would not file charges against Deputy Moore. That decision was, tragically, no surprise: fewer than 1% of officers involved in shootings of civilians are ever charged with a crime, and Black men are killed by police at roughly three times the rate of white men. Jalin’s case did not reflect a broken system, but a system working exactly as it was built to.

OUR APPROACH

Denver Justice Project got involved almost immediately, joining a coalition with the Epitome of Black Excellence, the Crowley Foundation — of which Jalin was an alumnus — and Brother Jeff to organize a unified, community-rooted response. We met weekly, then biweekly, with the coalition to strategize advocacy efforts, and worked closely with attorney Tyrone Glover, who is representing the Seabron family in their civil case against Douglas County, to ensure our public advocacy stayed aligned with their legal strategy.

We provided direct support to the Seabron family, attending court proceedings related to the incident alongside them. We helped organize direct actions and press conferences outside the Douglas County Courthouse, shared Jalin’s story to build public awareness, and pushed District Attorney George Brauchler to file charges against Deputy Moore — a deputy with a documented history of prior use of deadly force. We also pushed Sheriff Darren Weekly to terminate Deputy Moore for violating the department’s own internal use-of-force policies, formalizing that demand in a letter to Sheriff Weekly.

We drafted letters of support, shared throughout the community and signed by organizations, faith leaders, and community members, demanding accountability for the killing of a young father-to-be. Throughout, we named plainly what Jalin’s case revealed: a double standard in how the right to self-defense and the right to bear arms are treated for Black people versus white people, even within a county that champions gun rights as a core value.

Through our advocacy, DJP consistently documented the community organizing efforts, created informational materials detailing the circumstances of Jalin’s killing, along with links to his family’s GoFundMe to help support his pregnant girlfriend as the birth of their son approached. We produced social media content that humanized Jalin and his life, because his life mattered, alongside content documenting his killing, the inconsistencies in the official account, and the DA’s decision not to charge his killer. That content reached hundreds of thousands of viewers. We also authored an in-depth case report on Jalin’s killing. All of this work was done in close collaboration with the Seabron family and our coalition partners.

THE IMPACT

Despite a documented pattern of escalation by Deputy Moore, and despite Jalin never firing a single shot, DA Brauchler declined to bring charges — a decision that, however expected given the data, still represented a system refusing to hold its own accountable. DJP publicly condemned both the decision and the system that produced it, naming the racialized double standard directly: that Douglas County’s celebrated culture of open carry and self-defense extended no such protection to a Black man exercising those same rights.

The value of this work was never contingent on that outcome. Through sustained coalition organizing, we ensured Jalin’s story — and the injustice of his death — reached hundreds of thousands of people, transforming a name that might otherwise have faded from headlines into a widely recognized case that continues to shape public conversation about racial bias in policing and self-defense law in Colorado. We helped the Seabron family navigate both the criminal legal system’s failure and a parallel civil pursuit of accountability, and we helped raise material support for Jalin’s partner and their child during a difficult time.

Jalin’s case did not end with the DA’s press conference, and neither did our advocacy. Throughout the summer, DJP continued sharing Jalin’s story and his family’s GoFundMe at community events where we tabled, keeping his memory and the demand for accountability in front of new audiences long after the news cycle moved on. We continued meeting with and supporting Jalin’s mother directly, standing with her and our coalition partners as part of the broader fight to end the impunity that lets officers like Nicholas Moore use deadly force again and again without consequence.