DENVER: Videos made by the man who shot and killed a Colorado sheriff’s deputy after concerns were raised about his mental health show the gunman calling 911 and then opening his apartment door and talking to responding officers before the shooting.
The footage , livestreamed on Periscope, was obtained by Denver’s KUSA-TV. The station broadcast clips from two videos in which Matthew Riehl says he would not hurt anyone except to defend himself before calling authorities.
“Maybe I bought over 1,000 rounds of ammunition from Walmart. It’s not illegal,” he says.
Later, he tells a police dispatcher that a man had invited him to his house and was acting strangely.
When authorities arrive at Riehl’s suburban Denver apartment, the footage shows him talking to at least two officers, telling them he wants to file an emergency restraining order against his domestic partner. He is upset when one officer offers to give him a phone number to call, and leaves the doorway to go back into a room.
“Did you not get the message? Wow. They didn’t get the message. They lied,” he is heard saying on the video.
At another point, Riehl is seen holding a glass in his hand and says he’s had two scotches. He is heard saying that drinking would help him defend himself if someone bothers him.
The TV station said Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock verified the authenticity of the videos and said the 911 call made by Riehl was the second one from his apartment in Highlands Ranch, 16 miles (about 25 kilometers) south of Denver, on Sunday.
The first 911 call was made by Riehl’s roommate, who told authorities Riehl was acting strangely and might be having a mental breakdown. Responding deputies to that call found no evidence of a crime and left.
The footage shows the shooting but the station did not air that footage. A clip purporting to show it has been posted elsewhere online.
Riehl, an attorney and an Iraq war veteran, previously posted videos criticizing Colorado law enforcement officers in profane, highly personal terms.
Wyoming College of Law students had been warned about Riehl, a former student, because of his social media posts critical of professors at the school in Laramie.
A Nov. 6 email from Assistant College of Law Dean Lindsay Hoyt told students to notify campus police if they spotted Riehl or his car near campus, KTWO-AM in Casper, Wyoming, reported. In addition, security on campus was increased for several days.
Campus officers called police in Lone Tree, Colorado, in mid-November to warn them about Riehl, suggesting his rants were indicative of mental illness, UW Police Chief Mike Samp told The Denver Post.
Samp said it’s possible that Colorado authorities faced the same issue as Wyoming officials when an apparently mentally ill, dangerous person makes indirect threats.
The deputy’s slaying was the most recent in a string of fatal shootings involving suspects who may have had mental health problems, and the state has expanded services in hopes of finding a solution.
Colorado opened 12 walk-in mental health crisis centers across the state and set up a 24-hour hotline after a gunman killed 12 people in a suburban Denver movie theater in 2012. Doctors testified the gunman, James Holmes, was mentally ill.
The Colorado Office of Behavioral Health has said more than 580,000 people have taken advantage of the expanded services, going to a crisis center or calling or texting the hotline or a separate help line for less urgent cases.
Riehl was licensed as a lawyer for five years in Wyoming and voluntarily gave up his license in 2016, said Wyoming Bar Association executive director Sharon Wilkinson.
He practiced at a law firm in the small city of Rawlins and later opened his own practice but withdrew from the bar in October 2016, making him ineligible to practice law in the state, Wilkinson said. That’s the same year records indicate he moved back to Colorado.
Wilkinson says the bar received no complaints about Riehl.
Authorities have said he fired more than 100 rounds before he was killed by a SWAT team.
Riehl, armed with a rifle, wounded four deputies, including Zackari Parrish in the initial gunfire. The other three deputies managed to get away but had to leave Parrish behind because of their injuries and the ongoing gunfire. Parrish later was declared dead.
About 1.5 hours later, the SWAT team arrived and exchanged fire with Riehl. He was killed and a fifth officer was wounded.
Two people in nearby apartment units were also wounded sometime during the prolonged standoff.
Man who killed Colorado deputy livestreamed himself
Man who killed Colorado deputy livestreamed himself
A look back at how Arab News marked its 50th anniversary
- In a year crowded with news, the paper still managed to innovate and leverage AI to become available in 50 languages
- Golden Jubilee Gala, held at the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh, now available to watch on YouTube
RIYADH: In 2025, the global news agenda was crowded with headlines concerning wars, elections and rapid technological change.
Inside the newsroom of Arab News, the year carried additional weight: Saudi Arabia’s first English-language daily marked its 50th anniversary.
And with an industry going through turmoil worldwide, the challenge inside the newsroom was how to turn a midlife crisis into a midlife opportunity.
For the newspaper’s team members, the milestone was less about nostalgia than about ensuring the publication could thrive in a rapidly changing and evolving media landscape.
“We did not want just to celebrate our past,” said Faisal J. Abbas, editor-in-chief of Arab News. “But more importantly, we were constantly thinking of how we can keep Arab News relevant for the next five decades.”
The solution, he added, came down to two words: “Artificial intelligence.”
For the Arab News newsroom, AI was not a replacement for journalism but as a tool to extend it.
“It was like having three eyes at once: one on the past, one on the present, and one on the future,” said Noor Nugali, the newspaper’s deputy editor-in-chief.
One of the first initiatives was the 50th anniversary commemorative edition, designed as a compact historical record of the region told through Arab News’ own reporting.
“It was meant to be like a mini history book, telling the history of the region using Arab News’ archive with a story from each year,” said Siraj Wahab, acting executive editor of the newspaper.
The issue, he added, traced events ranging from the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975 to the swearing-in of Donald Trump, while also paying homage to former editors-in-chief who shaped the newspaper’s direction over five decades.
The anniversary edition, however, was only one part of a broader strategy to signal Arab News’ focus on the future.
To that end, the paper partnered with Google to launch the region’s first AI-produced podcast using NotebookLM, an experimental tool that synthesizes reporting and archival material into audio storytelling.
The project marked a regional first in newsroom-led AI audio production.
The podcast was unveiled during a special 50th anniversary ceremony in mid-November, held on the sidelines of the Arab Media Forum, hosted by the Dubai Future Foundation. The event in the UAE’s commercial hub drew regional media leaders and officials.
Remarks at the event highlighted the project as an example of innovation in legacy media, positioning Arab News as a case study in digital reinvention rather than preservation alone.
“This is a great initiative, and I’m happy that it came from Arab News as a leading media platform, and I hope to see more such initiatives in the Arab world especially,” said Mona Al-Marri, director-general of the Government of Dubai Media Office, on the sidelines of the event.
“AI is the future, and no one should deny this. It will take over so many sectors. We have to be ready for it and be part of it and be ahead of anyone else in this interesting field.”
Behind the scenes, another long-form project was taking shape: a documentary chronicling Arab News’ origins and its transformation into a global, digital-first newsroom.
“While all this was happening, we were also working in-house on a documentary telling the origin story of Arab News and how it transformed under the current editor into a more global, more digital operation,” said Nugali.
The result was “Rewriting Arab News,” a documentary examining the paper’s digital transformation and its navigation of Saudi Arabia’s reforms between 2016 and 2018. The film charted editorial shifts, newsroom restructuring and the challenges of reporting during a period of rapid national change.
The documentary was screened at the Frontline Club in London, the European Union Embassy, Westminster University, and the World Media Congress in Bahrain. It later became available on the streaming platform Shahid and onboard Saudi Arabian Airlines.
It was also nominated for an Association for International Broadcasting award.
In early July, a special screening of the documentary took place at the EU Embassy in Riyadh. During the event, EU Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Christophe Farnaud described the film as an “embodiment” of the “incredible changes” that the Kingdom is undergoing.
“I particularly appreciate … the historical dimension, when (Arab News) was created in 1975 — that was also a project corresponding to the new role of the Kingdom,” Farnaud said. “Now the Kingdom has entered a new phase, a spectacular phase of transformation.”
Part of the documentary is narrated by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, who in the film delves into the paper’s origins.
The grand slam of the anniversary year was the Golden Jubilee of Arab News gala, held in late September in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter.
Hosted by the Dean of Diplomatic Corps in Saudi Arabia and Ambassador of Djibouti to Riyadh Dya-Eddine Said Bamakhrama, the evening featured a keynote address by Prince Turki, who spoke about Arab News’ founding under his father, the late King Faisal, and its original mission to present the Kingdom to the English-speaking world.
Arab News was established in Jeddah in 1975 by brothers Hisham and Mohammed Ali Hafiz under the slogan to give Arabs a voice in English while documenting the major transformations taking place across the Middle East.
The two founders were honored with a special trophy presented by Prince Turki, Assistant Media Minister Abdullah Maghlouth, Editor-in-Chief Abbas, and family member and renowned columnist Talat Hafiz on behalf of the founders.
During the gala, Abbas announced Arab News’ most ambitious expansion yet: the launch of the publication in 50 languages, unveiled later at the World Media Congress in Madrid in cooperation with Camb.AI.
The Madrid launch in October underscored Arab News’ aim to reposition itself not simply as a regional paper, but as a global platform for Saudi and Middle Eastern perspectives.
The event was attended by Princess Haifa bint Abdulaziz Al-Mogrin, the Saudi ambassador to Spain; Arab and Spanish diplomats; and senior editors and executives.
As the anniversary year concluded, Arab News released the full video of the Golden Jubilee Gala to the public for the first time, making the event accessible beyond the room in which it was held.
For a newspaper founded in an era of typewriters and wire copy, the message of its 50th year was clear: longevity alone is not enough. Relevance, the newsroom concluded, now depends on how well journalism adapts without losing sight of its past.
