GUILTY CO - Possible Serial Shooter Has Colorado Drivers on Edge *Arrest* #4

[Hatfield]

.....snipped for focus........

[The men arrested include]... a convicted murderer. Another faces a separate drug charge. A third ... had been arrested last summer with a handgun.

Interesting.

Re snipped part.
Isnt it depressing that these people were not already in jail? We have a murderer, and the other 2 had gun charges of some sort in Baltimore with strict handgun laws. So why were they not in jail? WTH.
Are we getting too lenient with locking criminals up or what?
At a minimum the murderer should have been behind bars you would think. Its crazy.
So much for creating more laws or restrictions. How about enforcing the laws we already have like a lot of people say all the time.

I too wonder what the shooter(s) in NoCo were doing that made them so hard to spot by witnesses. There were a few reports of witnesses seeing where the shots came from and even one that saw a guy hanging out a car shooting at them if I am not mistaken. But I agree that something is very unique about most of them.

I am beginning to wonder if maybe there were a lot more witnesses to the shooter(s) and we have just not been told in news media. I get a sense that NoCo politics is censoring what is allowed to be reported. I also think the news media is going along with the censoring and not fighting against it.

We have seen examples of this and we even had one of us personally knew of someone else's friend of a friend that had a road incident and it never made it to the media.

So maybe there really is witnesses and we are just not ever getting to hear it. Purposely being censored maybe.

No matter what the reason there is something very strange with all the incidents up there in Colorado. I guess I am just glad the incidents have calmed down almost to a standstill.

Could that be a sign of maybe the perp(s) are in jail?

If they are in jail then if they treat them like Baltimore did then it wont be long till they will be back on the streets and the incidents will begin again. Lets hope not.

 

[Hatfield]

One reason why censoring these types of incidents could be the tourism industry in Colorado.

In the Heather Elvis murder case down in Carolina I think or close to there near the beach we have seen censoring for sure down there. The news media down there is purposely censoring their reporting so they don't scare away tourists to the beach communities that need tourism to support their local businesses.

So this could be a reason why censoring could be going on in Colorado. I do occasionally see tourism ads on TV for Colorado so I would put Colorado in a unique state situation with tourism being a pretty big deal there. So maybe that is a part of the reasons that lots of the incidents were downplayed.

Many other states would not have an issue with news reporting of incidents because they don't have a huge tourism industry like Colorado does. So maybe this is part of the reason.

As much as I hate censoring I can almost see why it could be happening when tourism is thought about. For instance if my parents owned a small bait shop that relied on tourists then I would have to admit that I would want censoring of a shooter on the loose because my business would suffer.

I guess that is a selfish attitude but if you were in charge of the whole industry for the state then I could understand the pressure to not report certain things.

With all that said I honestly would have to draw the line when peoples lives are at stake. So with a shooter type incident I would have to let honest reporting go out so the next victim can take precautions. I sure would not want a tourist coming up to visit and then get shot by a sniper. That would generate even worse publicity than what they are trying to prevent in the first place.

 

[Forager]

One reason why censoring these types of incidents could be the tourism industry in Colorado.

In the Heather Elvis murder case down in Carolina I think or close to there near the beach we have seen censoring for sure down there. The news media down there is purposely censoring their reporting so they don't scare away tourists to the beach communities that need tourism to support their local businesses.

So this could be a reason why censoring could be going on in Colorado. I do occasionally see tourism ads on TV for Colorado so I would put Colorado in a unique state situation with tourism being a pretty big deal there. So maybe that is a part of the reasons that lots of the incidents were downplayed.

Many other states would not have an issue with news reporting of incidents because they don't have a huge tourism industry like Colorado does. So maybe this is part of the reason.

As much as I hate censoring I can almost see why it could be happening when tourism is thought about. For instance if my parents owned a small bait shop that relied on tourists then I would have to admit that I would want censoring of a shooter on the loose because my business would suffer.

I guess that is a selfish attitude but if you were in charge of the whole industry for the state then I could understand the pressure to not report certain things.

With all that said I honestly would have to draw the line when peoples lives are at stake. So with a shooter type incident I would have to let honest reporting go out so the next victim can take precautions. I sure would not want a tourist coming up to visit and then get shot by a sniper. That would generate even worse publicity than what they are trying to prevent in the first place.

I think that you may be on to something in thinking that concerns for the area's reputation might help work against frank reporting of the random violence taking place in Colorado. No one ever dies in Disneyland.

I think that another problem may be the complexity of the story. With so many incidents having happened during the last year, and so little information on how they relate to one another, it takes a lot of work for a reporter to just to get them straight in his/her head and summarize them clearly for an article - all for the privilege of having your contacts among the police cheesed at you.

 

[margarita25]

Hummer window shot out, victim taken to hospital to be checked out
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...ut-victim-taken-to-hospital-to-be-checked-out

"The shooting happened late Sunday night near at 28th Avenue and Zuni Street.

However, officers found the victim and the victim's vehicle, a Hummer with the driver's window shot out, near Federal Boulevard and 50th Avenue."

*there's a video at this link showing the window. It also says "SUV window shot out" and "gunman wanted after shooting at victim's car".

 

[Forager]

Hummer window shot out, victim taken to hospital to be checked out
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...ut-victim-taken-to-hospital-to-be-checked-out

"The shooting happened late Sunday night near at 28th Avenue and Zuni Street.

However, officers found the victim and the victim's vehicle, a Hummer with the driver's window shot out, near Federal Boulevard and 50th Avenue."

*there's a video at this link showing the window. It also says "SUV window shot out" and "gunman wanted after shooting at victim's car".

Thank you! Some grist to mill! This seems to have different flavor from the kind of incidents I think of as potentially related to the NoCO shootings and highway shatterings. The attack appears to have been targeted; the clip mentions that the "shooter seems to have gotten into a fight with the victim outside a Super8." And the setting is more urban. (See the orange diamonds giving the locations of the attack and where Denver PD later found the vehicle, on the case map. The red dots are NoCO window shatterings, and the yellow dots are other road shootings and shatterings, some related and some not).

 

[margarita25]

Thank you! Some grist to mill! This seems to have different flavor from the kind of incidents I think of as potentially related to the NoCO shootings and highway shatterings. The attack appears to have been targeted; the clip mentions that the "shooter seems to have gotten into a fight with the victim outside a Super8." And the setting is more urban. (See the orange diamonds giving the locations of the attack and where Denver PD later found the vehicle, on the case map. The red dots are NoCO window shatterings, and the yellow dots are other road shootings and shatterings, some related and some not).

View attachment 87070

View attachment 87085

Thanks Forager. I didn't get to watch the clip bc I was at work but wanted to post it just in case as soon as I saw the headline.

 

[Forager]

I noticed an article that includes some updating of the I-10 Phoenix highway shooting case that we had been following in the early fall. The case has been looking less open and shut that it had been when the Governor of Arizona tweeted, “We got him!”. There have been several more unexplained side window shatterings on and near I-10, defense allegations of bullying of a potential witnesses by the AZ DPS office, and a claim by the defense that it has phone records that put the accused shooter at his home at the time of the shootings.

Allhands: I wouldn't convict Leslie Merritt Jr.
Joanna Allhands, The Arizona Republic, 12/20/15

And the State is much less keen on media attention in the case than it was earlier. From today's Arizona Republic:

Prosecutors seek to seal motions in I-10 Phoenix freeway-shootings case
Megan Cassidy, The Arizona Republic, 1/28/16.


Quoting:
The motion is aimed to prevent pretrial media dissection of the case, which has garnered consistent and prominent coverage since Merritt’s September arrest.

“As long as documents filed in this court are public, there is a high likelihood that the preservation of both evidence and the jury pool will be compromised,” Deputy County Attorney Vanessa Losicco wrote in the motion, filed Wednesday. “Maintaining the integrity of the case and the jury pool is not only in the State’s best interests, but in Defendant’s as well.”

“The State’s Motion makes it abundantly clear that its basis for making its request does not lie with the Defendant, but rather, in its frustration with the media’s reporting of public information,” the defense motion states.

The defense concludes that the prosecutor’s recent motion could be “construed as showing that the wheels are coming off of its case.”


Leslie Merritt, accused of four of the 11+ I-10 shootings, 10/1/15. (Photo: Rob Schumacher/The Republic)

 

[Forager]

God forbid that we should really have something on topic to talk about, but it really brought a smile to my face to see that you guys are still checking in on the thread!

 

[searchinGirl]

God forbid that we should really have something on topic to talk about, but it really brought a smile to my face to see that you guys are still checking in on the thread!

I was driving around yesterday near I-25...in fact I passed the Centura Health building at the Erie/Dacono exit three times...couldn't help but think of you guys here on the thread...something about driving on the frontage rd...its almost like being on the highway it's so close and kind of distracting when a car comes the opposite way to remind you it's not...about the Phoenix shooter IDK...they did a pretty good job of connecting his gun to the shootings but at least in my mind, didn't convince me it was actually him doing it...could have been someone at the pawn shop...

 

[Foxfire]

God forbid that we should really have something on topic to talk about, but it really brought a smile to my face to see that you guys are still checking in on the thread!

Glad to see ya smiling Forager.. When a thread slows down, as most do<marathons not sprints>, ya have to pace yourself. I normally go to breaking News threads, yet keep checking on the dormant ones.. Hopefully something will break soon in this investigation..

 

[margarita25]

John Jacoby would have been stoked about the Broncos, I'm sure.

 

[Foxfire]

Why the silence? Has the NOCO Highway Sniper Task Force been disbanded? Has a suspect/s been identified or arrested? "Too many unanswered questions".. The victims deserve justice and the American public needs answers...

William Connole, was shot/murdered on June 10/2015 and has yet to be tied to the NOCO shooter by the Task Force. Shortly thereafter in late June 2015, Nathaniel Scheiern was arrested for the ax-murders of his grandparents in Glendale, CA.. Both of these tragic incidents have been void of media coverage..


Listen: Loveland shooting called in as hit-and-run - 06/10/2015
http://www.coloradoan.com/story/new...ecords-light-loveland-shooting-call/28763563/

Larimer County Sheriff's Office deputies and Loveland officers not already assigned to the call began asking for any sort of description on the vehicle that might have hit the man, who took walks at night to help him sleep. Frustrated that no description was immediately available, one law enforcement officer asked for any vehicle descriptions from the unsolved homicide of a Windsor man, shot twice while riding his bicycle.

MORE: Still unknown if Loveland murder connected to shootings <snipped - read more>
___________________________

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/06/29/glendale-police-question-grandson-of-murdered-couple/

Glendale Police Question Grandson Of Murdered Couple 06/29/2015

GLENDALE (CBSLA.com) &#8212; Police on Monday were questioning the grandson of a couple whose bodies were discovered over the weekend at their Glendale home.

&#8220;Detectives know where he is,&#8221; Sgt. William said. &#8220;He remains at the hospital so they&#8217;re standing by for his recovery so they can talk to him.&#8221;

Police are looking into videos and postings from Scheiern&#8217;s Facebook page, and are working with the FBI&#8217;s Counter-Terrorism Task Force. <snipped - read more>

 

[Forager]

"Why the silence in NoCO?" No news, is my guess. The last reported window shattering was on Nov. 30. The press might be bored with the window shatterings, and LE reticent about them, but I think we'd have heard something. It might be the winter. And we would certainly have heard about seemingly random attacks, or if the Task Force had good news to report.

"Has the NOCO Highway Sniper Task Force been disbanded?" As recently as late December, the Task Force was saying that it was still fully staffed and active. The last reference I've seen to the Task force was a piece on a US Army website. I've pasted the whole story (which is fair game with government publications) and boldfaced interesting bits:

Department of Justice uses Army equipment to locate shooters, March 10, 2016
By Carlotta Maneice, AMRDEC Public Affairs, on WWW.Army.mil

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (March 10, 2016) -- Army technology recently found a role in civilian law enforcement. The Northern Colorado Serial Shooter Task Force, made up of various Colorado law enforcement agencies, and the Denver Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, recently tested the Firefly system in support of the Crime Gun Intelligence Center initiative.

FireFly is a government-owned technology developed by the Army's Research Laboratory and the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center. AMRDEC FireFly sensors were placed in an urban environment for the first time in conjunction with the CIGC initiative.

"FireFly acoustic/EO sensor was designed for shooter detection and geo-location to support small installations, independent of installation power," said Timothy Edwards, AMRDEC Chief Scientist-Force Protection Technologies. "CGIC utilized the FireFly acoustic gunshot locator system in conjunction with the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network in an effort to identify active shooters in urban settings."

Five FireFly ground systems and seven FireFly-lite systems were installed in various Colorado locations for a comprehensive systematic approach to provide rapid site exploitation of firearm ballistics. The FireFly sensors are lightweight, have 360 degree surveillance capability and have been under development for more than a decade.

"The uniqueness of FireFly is its capability of being rapidly deployed," said Tim Kelly, who oversees Denver's arson and explosives group and investigates gun violence in northern Colorado. "We used this tool to target serial gang shooters and identify where the shooting took place."

Originally deployed to Afghanistan as a tripod-mounted system to detect hostile small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the FireFly's sensors are sophisticated enough to group threats into small arms fire, heavy machine gun, or rockets artillery classifications.

"We hope to continue collaborating with AMRDEC and ARL to develop the next generation of FireFly that can be used in urban areas, is more concealable and will provide the ability to respond to ongoing threats in a community," said Kelly.

A Firefly sensor array:



-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"An ATF Special Agent fires a weapon to test Firefly acoustics in Northern Colorado"



[End of Army.mil story]

I had noticed the story a couple of weeks ago, but held off posting about it while I waited for a response from the Task Force's PIO. I'd sent him an e-mail asking if he had any concerns about my posting the story here and possibly tipping off the Task Force's quary to this new tool. He never responded.

 

[margarita25]

"Why the silence in NoCO?" No news, is my guess. The last reported window shattering was on Nov. 30. The press might be bored with the window shatterings, and LE reticent about them, but I think we'd have heard something. It might be the winter. And we would certainly have heard about seemingly random attacks, or if the Task Force had good news to report.

"Has the NOCO Highway Sniper Task Force been disbanded?" As recently as late December, the Task Force was saying that it was still fully staffed and active. The last reference I've seen to the Task force was a piece on a US Army website. I've pasted the whole story (which is fair game with government publications) and boldfaced interesting bits:

Department of Justice uses Army equipment to locate shooters, March 10, 2016
By Carlotta Maneice, AMRDEC Public Affairs, on WWW.Army.mil

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (March 10, 2016) -- Army technology recently found a role in civilian law enforcement. The Northern Colorado Serial Shooter Task Force, made up of various Colorado law enforcement agencies, and the Denver Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, recently tested the Firefly system in support of the Crime Gun Intelligence Center initiative.

FireFly is a government-owned technology developed by the Army's Research Laboratory and the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center. AMRDEC FireFly sensors were placed in an urban environment for the first time in conjunction with the CIGC initiative.

"FireFly acoustic/EO sensor was designed for shooter detection and geo-location to support small installations, independent of installation power," said Timothy Edwards, AMRDEC Chief Scientist-Force Protection Technologies. "CGIC utilized the FireFly acoustic gunshot locator system in conjunction with the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network in an effort to identify active shooters in urban settings."

Five FireFly ground systems and seven FireFly-lite systems were installed in various Colorado locations for a comprehensive systematic approach to provide rapid site exploitation of firearm ballistics. The FireFly sensors are lightweight, have 360 degree surveillance capability and have been under development for more than a decade.

"The uniqueness of FireFly is its capability of being rapidly deployed," said Tim Kelly, who oversees Denver's arson and explosives group and investigates gun violence in northern Colorado. "We used this tool to target serial gang shooters and identify where the shooting took place."

Originally deployed to Afghanistan as a tripod-mounted system to detect hostile small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the FireFly's sensors are sophisticated enough to group threats into small arms fire, heavy machine gun, or rockets artillery classifications.

"We hope to continue collaborating with AMRDEC and ARL to develop the next generation of FireFly that can be used in urban areas, is more concealable and will provide the ability to respond to ongoing threats in a community," said Kelly.

A Firefly sensor array:

View attachment 91131

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"An ATF Special Agent fires a weapon to test Firefly acoustics in Northern Colorado"

View attachment 91132

[End of Army.mil story]

I had noticed the story a couple of weeks ago, but held off posting about it while I waited for a response from the Task Force's PIO. I'd sent him an e-mail asking if he had any concerns about my posting the story here and possibly tipping off the Task Force's quary to this new tool. He never responded.

Wow, Forager. This is incredible stuff, thanks for posting!!

From above: "The Northern Colorado Serial Shooter Task Force, made up of various Colorado law enforcement agencies, and the Denver Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, recently tested the Firefly system in support of the Crime Gun Intelligence Center initiative."

Notice the wording of "Serial Shooter"...

Going back to really read about this more. This is some serious stuff...feeling optimistic that this Task Force is pulling out the big guns. We are approaching one year since CR was shot. ( Can you believe how time flies?)

Somewhat o/t, "Active Shooter Training at FRCC over spring break and also a bomb scare:
http://www.timescall.com/longmont-l...-investigate-suspicious-device-at-front-range

"Longmont police and fire had been conducting active shooter training at FRCC on Monday afternoon when a firefighter discovered the bottles on some stone steps, Satur said."

Remember FRCC has had threats last year:
http://www.timescall.com/longmont-l...c-longmont-campus-evacuated-after-bomb-threat

Back to Firefly, I'll be looking for these sensors, doubt they'll be visible to me but who knows.

Marking my spot to read and study this more, and post after work. Crazy how you found this, thanks for keeping your eyes out. This is right up Foxfire's alley too!

Hello to the Missus!

 

[Hatfield]

"Why the silence in NoCO?" No news, is my guess. The last reported window shattering was on Nov. 30. The press might be bored with the window shatterings, and LE reticent about them, but I think we'd have heard something. It might be the winter. And we would certainly have heard about seemingly random attacks, or if the Task Force had good news to report.

"Has the NOCO Highway Sniper Task Force been disbanded?" As recently as late December, the Task Force was saying that it was still fully staffed and active. The last reference I've seen to the Task force was a piece on a US Army website. I've pasted the whole story (which is fair game with government publications) and boldfaced interesting bits:

Department of Justice uses Army equipment to locate shooters, March 10, 2016
By Carlotta Maneice, AMRDEC Public Affairs, on WWW.Army.mil

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (March 10, 2016) -- Army technology recently found a role in civilian law enforcement. The Northern Colorado Serial Shooter Task Force, made up of various Colorado law enforcement agencies, and the Denver Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, recently tested the Firefly system in support of the Crime Gun Intelligence Center initiative.

FireFly is a government-owned technology developed by the Army's Research Laboratory and the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center. AMRDEC FireFly sensors were placed in an urban environment for the first time in conjunction with the CIGC initiative.

"FireFly acoustic/EO sensor was designed for shooter detection and geo-location to support small installations, independent of installation power," said Timothy Edwards, AMRDEC Chief Scientist-Force Protection Technologies. "CGIC utilized the FireFly acoustic gunshot locator system in conjunction with the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network in an effort to identify active shooters in urban settings."

Five FireFly ground systems and seven FireFly-lite systems were installed in various Colorado locations for a comprehensive systematic approach to provide rapid site exploitation of firearm ballistics. The FireFly sensors are lightweight, have 360 degree surveillance capability and have been under development for more than a decade.

"The uniqueness of FireFly is its capability of being rapidly deployed," said Tim Kelly, who oversees Denver's arson and explosives group and investigates gun violence in northern Colorado. "We used this tool to target serial gang shooters and identify where the shooting took place."

Originally deployed to Afghanistan as a tripod-mounted system to detect hostile small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the FireFly's sensors are sophisticated enough to group threats into small arms fire, heavy machine gun, or rockets artillery classifications.

"We hope to continue collaborating with AMRDEC and ARL to develop the next generation of FireFly that can be used in urban areas, is more concealable and will provide the ability to respond to ongoing threats in a community," said Kelly.

A Firefly sensor array:

View attachment 91131

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"An ATF Special Agent fires a weapon to test Firefly acoustics in Northern Colorado"

View attachment 91132

[End of Army.mil story]

I had noticed the story a couple of weeks ago, but held off posting about it while I waited for a response from the Task Force's PIO. I'd sent him an e-mail asking if he had any concerns about my posting the story here and possibly tipping off the Task Force's quary to this new tool. He never responded.

The firefly system is very interesting.

To make it simple I think it is supposed to identify the location of a shooter just based on the sound of the shot.

So if it had been in place near some of the shootings then LE could tell the location where the shot came from if the shot makes a good enough sound.

I think it would be helpful for certain situations. The obvious problem is having enough of the systems installed in advance of where a shooting is going to take place.

They may get lucky though and have the system in place before a shooting happens.

It sounds like a good tool.

 

[Forager]

The firefly system is very interesting.

To make it simple I think it is supposed to identify the location of a shooter just based on the sound of the shot.

So if it had been in place near some of the shootings then LE could tell the location where the shot came from if the shot makes a good enough sound.

I think it would be helpful for certain situations. The obvious problem is having enough of the systems installed in advance of where a shooting is going to take place.

They may get lucky though and have the system in place before a shooting happens.

It sounds like a good tool.

I think that you put your finger on it about having enough sensors up to cover enough area. I don't think that the Task Force's equipment could cover more than a very small fraction of what I think of as our case area. I haven't been able to find much information on Firefly's range, and the technology is evolving, but I don't think that the Task Force's "five FireFly ground systems and seven FireFly-lite systems" combined could cover more than a few square miles.

Firefly had been designed as a defensive system to let soldiers know where incoming shots are coming from. The Army would put the ground systems up over bases, or the FireFly-lite systems on troopers' backpacks in Afghanistan to be able to quickly respond to snipers. (http://www.army.mil/article/105331/Army_harnesses_sun_to_reduce_casualties_from_sniper_attacks/). It wasn't designed for area coverage, per se. ShotSpotter, a competing systems that is designed for area coverage requires upwards of several sensors per square mile. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/25/william-bratton-shotspotter-get-a-life_n_6939070.html)

A few square miles would only represent a fraction of our "case area" however you define it. If you draw a circle that only just includes the Romero, Jacoby, and Connole shootings along its perimeter, you have an area of about 99 square miles. (See the blue circle in the map below). If the FireFly deployment is targeted at the I-25 window shatterings, it has a stretch of over 50 miles of highway to cover between the southernmost and northernmost window shattering locations. Let's hope that the Task Force has figured out a clever way to focus the technology on a likely area, and gets lucky.

From the case map:


Firefly (top of frame) and RENEWS solar panels (foreground). Photo credit: WWW.Army.mil:

 

[Foxfire]

Great information on the firefly system Forager.. Good to see the NOCO Sniper Task Force is using the available technology resources and working with the military and other agencies. Glad to see the conversation progressing too.

 

[margarita25]

Could this be anything? What are these incidents, have we mentioned them anywhere upstream?

Gun information links man to 2 separate shooting
http://www.9news.com/news/crime/gun-information-links-man-to-2-separate-shooting/114259854

"The case was unsolved until the gun used in the shooting was linked through the National Integrated Ballistic Network to the gun used in an unrelated shooting in Colorado Springs in Nov. 2015.

The Crime Gun Intelligence Center in Denver worked with ATF's Colorado Springs Gun Task Force and the Colorado Springs Police Department Gang Unit to identify Lomeli-Casillas as the suspect in both shootings."

Sounds gang related, so maybe unlikely but posting for reference.

 

[margarita25]

I wonder what this month of April (and rest of this year) might hold, if anything...

Any news on NS?

Who shot Cori Romero? Who killed John Jacoby? Who killed William Connole? Is this person (s) still in my backyard?

 

[margarita25]

I was wondering, when I first started this thread, nobody had been killed, yet . Maybe we should change the name of this thread to the victims?