#CEO brandishes gun at Hispanic couple lost on his property: report

The CEO of an energy company chased down and held a Hispanic couple at gunpoint after they accidentally drove onto his property in an affluent neighborhood in Colorado on their way to a wedding rehearsal dinner, according to a report.

Chris Ochoa, 26, said in a Facebook post that he and his girlfriend were following GPS directions to his friend’s event on June 12 when they found themselves at the swanky Elk Canyon Estates in Sedalia, 9 News reported.

He performed a U-turn to get back on track but “a large red truck pulled in front of me and cut me off, blocking the road,” Ochoa recounted.

The driver, Paul Favret, “immediately got out of his truck and pointed a gun at us. He then ran to my driver’s side window (which was down) and continued to point the gun and yell that he was ‘going to blow our head off!’” he wrote.

“Apparently, the u-turn that I had made was in his driveway; and he wasn’t happy about it. During this time we had our hands up, pleading that we were only looking for my friend’s wedding party and that we were not doing anything wrong.”

Ochoa said he apologized for entering Favret’s property but said the man kept pointing the weapon at them.

“My girlfriend was able to take a few pictures as he moved towards the front of our rental car, and she called 911 as well because we felt in danger as he kept pointing the gun at our faces and continued to tell us how much he wanted to kill us,” he said.

In a statement to police, Ochoa wrote: “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.”

He added: “As a minority, I felt in danger.”

He said in his Facebook account that he later found out there had been two other vehicles that ended up at the same house due to faulty GPS directions, yet he and his girlfriend were the only ones held at gunpoint.

“We were also the only minorities in the entire neighborhood where this occurred,” he said.

“As I notified the officers that I wanted to press charges for being assaulted, the owner of the house where the wedding venue is being held issued a threat, stating: ‘If you press charges and disrupt my community I will cancel the wedding,’” he wrote.

“I was in disbelief that she put me in the position of choosing between ruining my best friend’s wedding or doing what is right. I had no choice but to walk away. It amazed me that she was willing to cancel her own nephew’s wedding because of this.”

The Douglas County District Attorney’s Office has filed five charges against Favret, CEO of Resource Energy, including two felony menacing counts and three misdemeanors, 9 News reported.

“The Facebook post in question does not portray an accurate version of the events. However, I deeply regret my actions that day,” Favret told the outlet through a company rep.

He also insisted that he could not distinguish the couple’s race.

“I had no way of knowing the identities of the individuals in the vehicle,” Favret told 9 News. “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.”

He added that some intruders on his property had been engaged in illegal elk hunting.

Favret at first denied to police that he pulled out his gun during the incident, but when shown the images captured by Ochoa’s girlfriend, he said he didn’t remember doing so and told officers he was on pain medication.

Ochoa, who identifies as Mexican-American, asked the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office to reopen the case, adding that the incident scared him enough that he skipped the wedding in the same neighborhood the next day.