A Colorado man who faced two first-degree murder charges for shooting and killing two aggressors during a road-rage incident has finally had all charges dropped against him.

In June 2023, Stephan Long was driving on Interstate 25 in Denver when two men—brothers Blake and Damon Lucas—pulled up beside next to him on the highway, yelled at him and then swerved in front of his car and came to a stop. One of the brothers, Blake, then jumped out of the passenger side of the vehicle he was traveling in and attacked Long through his open window. At that point, Long grabbed a handgun he had in his car and shot him in self-defense. His brother Damon exited the driver’s side of his vehicle and grabbed onto the driver’s side of Long’s car as he was trying to get away, at which point Long shot him as well. Long then fled the scene and didn’t call 911, mitigating factors that likely led to the initial charges. Complicating the issue, Long is black and the Lucas brothers were white.

Following the incident, Long was immediately arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one of which was dropped not long afterward. He spent months in jail before finally being released on bond.