CO - Possible Serial Shooter Has Colorado Drivers on Edge #3

[margarita25]

Maybe he's mad at eharmony, got a bad match (see map). Sorry, this map is making me delirious.

 

[margarita25]

Forager, can you please give me a lateral mile distance between 287 and Romero / roof incident? TIA

 

[Forager]

Forager, can you please give me a lateral mile distance between 287 and Romero / roof incident? TIA

Highway 287 is 4.75 miles to the west of I-25 in that area.

We had another pair of incidents a couple of months ago: one vs. a semi on Hwy 34 in Morgan, another on C-370 in Morrison, both on 8/31/15. Both pairs were on the last Monday of the month. (The times of day were very different, though: 4:19 PM and 5:13 PM for yesterday's attacks, and 7:20 AM and 9:00 AM for August's.)

 

[margarita25]

Peak traffic times on a major highway, and nobody saw anything...

To hit a sunroof, one would have to be firing down onto it...

 

[Footwarrior]

The northern sunroof shattering location is described as the underpass between Mountain Vista and CO 14. That would be where Vine St. crosses I25, about a mile south of the location shown on the map.

There is often heavy traffic at the intersection of Harmony and I25 in the late afternoon.

 

[margarita25]

The whole sunroof thing is weird to me. Does this mean that the shatterer(s) could see the sunroofs clearly and knew they were sunroofs? What does this say about vantage point, distance and visibility?

I'd like to look back at the spreadsheet and see which other shattering instances occurred on a Monday. Iirc, Jacoby was killed on a Monday morning around 10, and CR and WC were both shot on Wed nights.

It's been just over 6 months since CR was shot. Approaching thread 4.

 

[margarita25]

Highway 287 is 4.75 miles to the west of I-25 in that area.

We had another pair of incidents a couple of months ago: one vs. a semi on Hwy 34 in Morgan, another on C-370 in Morrison, both on 8/31/15. Both pairs were on the last Monday of the month. (The times of day were very different, though: 4:19 PM and 5:13 PM for yesterday's attacks, and 7:20 AM and 9:00 AM for August's.)

Great pattern observation, Forager. This is significant, I think. I really want to dig in here but having some major tech difficulties so going to try to fix that then will be back for a comparative analysis of these 4 incidents!

Thanks to infinity for all you have done here.

 

[margarita25]

Last thought before I run off, if LE can link one of these shatterings to any of the confirmed shootings that would be huge. But they are yet to do so. What I still don't get is this "we'll have the task force take a look at it if it's suspicious"...well, I think it's all suspicious to begin with, especially the fact that this is right on top of the Romero shooting, so they should already be looking at it. They probably are looking at it, one would hope, but just not saying they are for whatever reason(s).

I would like to hear some of you guys weigh in on the sunroof thing as far as the gun aspect goes.

 

[margarita25]

One more thing, lol, I remember seeing something about a major wreck I think right near this location of Harmony and 25 iirc quite recently but didn't post about it (as I have not posted about other wrecks as well)...it might be worth for me to go back and see if I can find it.

Again, who knows how many other incidents we do not even know about.

 

[Forager]

The northern sunroof shattering location is described as the underpass between Mountain Vista and CO 14. That would be where Vine St. crosses I25, about a mile south of the location shown on the map.

There is often heavy traffic at the intersection of Harmony and I25 in the late afternoon.

I take your point, and appreciate your checking, but Google Map is showing the 271 marker as being just south of the Mountain Vista exit, and much closer to Mountain Vista than to Vine St. Am I misunderstanding?

 

[margarita25]

So, fast, clean getaway, navigational, can be conspicuous, maybe he is on a Sport bike?

Any nearby / parallel trails? Particularly near the tree lines?

 

[margarita25]

So almost an hour in between incidents yesterday, within a 6.5 mile range.

What was traffic like at that time, ridiculous, I'm sure. Entertaining the thought he did some kind of loop or parallel route to get to the southern location, there has got to be a traffic cam in which he/they might have been captured? Along one of the cross streets? I'm totally brainstorming and thinking out loud here.

I put a bandaid on an old device, we'll see how long it holds up, so going for the "last monday of the month dual shattering comparative analysis" next. Note to self to look at the what reminded me of a "joyride run" as well.

The weather has changed, cold and dark early, the moon has been full, I was just dusting and a book fell down on the floor open. Just for fun I was like, "gimme something about our shooter(s)". It was open to the first paragraph of "Heart of Darkness".

 

[margarita25]

So, just noticed this ditch, Boxelder Ditch, but that wouldn't make sense for a trajectory on a sunroof? Eta, nevermind wrong direction it looks like.

 

[margarita25]

rsbm

Wondering about that canal access road? (thinking out loud, sorry, this is like a needle in a haystack).

Army Reserve Center is right there.

 

[margarita25]

Lol, don't laugh at my image :blushing:

Potential routes, not counting back roads inside?

 

[Maxine2U]

I posted on this thread a while ago and came back to it today because I read in the paper about the sunroof shattering. We are living in a house not far from Harmony. Gosh, how scary. I'll try to contribute some once I get to know the area better. Thanks for the great sleuthing!

 

[margarita25]

I posted on this thread a while ago and came back to it today because I read in the paper about the sunroof shattering. We are living in a house not far from Harmony. Gosh, how scary. I'll try to contribute some once I get to know the area better. Thanks for the great sleuthing!

Welcome back

 

[Forager]

Peak traffic times on a major highway, and nobody saw anything...

To hit a sunroof, one would have to be firing down onto it...

Yes and yes. Those two elements help us tack down some of the shooter's MO and suggest a fair level of skill. We'd never been sure whether he had been shooting from the side of he road or another car, but in these attacks, at least, we know. You can't shoot out a sunroof from another car, so the shooter had to have been up on the overpass or high on an embankment. We now know that he can get into stationary positions off road, make difficult shots, and get out, all without being noticed by a river of people going by in cars.

Those attack sites offered precious little in the way of cover (see the screen shots below). He couldn't be sure that no one would have seen him get into position and called the police, so he would have to move quickly, take a relatively few well aimed shots at targets moving 75 mph, and get out quickly.

It's been clear for some time that most of the many the shatterings along I-25 were deliberate and the shooter(s) still active, but it was hard to put into one sentence that everyone would get. I think this pair of shatterings does that. "The latest attacks blew out sunroofs of two cars within an hour on the same six mile stretch of I-25."

Here's the view northward by the Mountain Vista Dr. overpass. (Footwarrior had suggested the Vine overpass might be a better interpretation of the location, and may be right. That area is very much like the Mountain Vista overpass but with even less vegetation or other cover).



Here's the south side of the overpass at East Harmony Rd., not far from where Cory Romero was wounded. (We aren't sure of this location either, but the alternative Hwy 14 area offers even less cover).

 

[Hatfield]

Lol, don't laugh at my image :blushing:

Potential routes, not counting back roads inside?

Some of the overpasses look like they cross at an angle. I think those are a possibility because the shooter would have a better angle at side windows.

I agree about the height overpass advantage.

 

[Hatfield]

Here are tighter zooms of the two spots, starting with the earlier one, on the assumption that it was just south of the Harmony Rd. overpass. I've put littles scales in in blue to show what 300 feet (one football field) looks like.

View attachment 83426

The second attack by the Mountain Vista overpass:

View attachment 83425

I would have felt terribly exposed with a gun or airgun on that overpass or its escarpments in the late afternoon. Am I wrong, Coloradoans, to think that someone on foot in those areas would have stood out like a sore thumb? I would have wanted a getaway car and driver at the ready before I tried that.

We brought up before but what about a Motorcycle getaway . Very easy to get to places and take off quickly on a motorcycle