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

[margarita25]

Source: Northern Colorado Shooting Task Force
http://www.facebook.com/Northern-Colorado-Shooting-Task-Force-898627956871939/

 

[Forager]

Originally Posted by Forager
I went back to the video of the conference and have to take back what I said above about Captain Coleman's remarks. He did not sound like he was acknowledging that the window shatterings were deliberate. And I think that the reporter did misstate what the Moore was saying about the relationship of the window shatterings to the other incidents. He wasn't dismissing the possibility that the window shatterings might be linked to the other shootings, just saying that they hadn't identified any links.

they probably wont establish any links either because the lack of evidence is too difficult for them to deal with...but it wasn't weird side-flying road debris...IMO

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Forager]

I learned during Jessica Ridgeway's abduction, murder and manhunt, that whenever Law Enforcement uses the words "Stay Vigilant", it is not a good sign, or rather a reflection of the serious nature of a specific threat at hand:

http://www.reporterherald.com/opini...tion-into-shootings-will-require-publics-help

"It is important to stay vigilant," one task for member reminded the Colorado residents.

Given the randomness of the crimes, in terms of location and targets, the public must stay alert, not just to help police solve this case but for their own protection."

***********

IMO from the most recent Task Force PC, LE does believe that there is a danger to the community.
(Of course there is always a danger to any community, anything can happen, but ykwim, specifically as related to "these cases".)

They have to make it clear that they are concerned and doing all they can - and I think they are. The Task Force knows that all eyes will turn to them if there is another random shooting. They'll get creamed if they look like they're taking it lightly.

I think that that concern extends to the window shatterings. I'll be interested to see if, in their new spirit of openness, they report new window shatterings. My understanding was that the Task Force's policy, at least earlier, was not to discuss window shattering. To hear Jason Pohl, the shatterings have "continued through the winter across the region." If they had, it wasn't reported on the internet. Not in NoCO. The last one on record was on 11/30/15. There was one in early April in Canon City, and one in February in Centennial, but they didn't look like the I-25 shatterer's work, and those towns don't count as NoCO anyway (do they?).

From Shooting task force still stumped one year later., Jason Pohl, The Coloradoan
"The task force also fielded reports of shattered front and side vehicle windows on and near I-25 through the spring and summer. It has not revealed any evidence that gunshots were the cause of the window shatterings. Broken window reports continued through the winter across the region."

 

[Maxine2U]

I have to say I'm annoyed by some of the comments on the Task Force's FB page. It sounds like a lot of people here have no idea any of this is going on! In fact, my husband wasn't aware of it until a few days ago (edit: this isn't true, he knew about it but forgot? IDK. Drives me nuts :gaah. The whole story needs to be in people's faces more. Maybe some billboards?

 

[margarita25]

I have to say I'm annoyed by some of the comments on the Task Force's FB page. It sounds like a lot of people here have no idea any of this is going on! In fact, my husband wasn't aware of it until a few days ago (edit: this isn't true, he knew about it but forgot? IDK. Drives me nuts :gaah. The whole story needs to be in people's faces more. Maybe some billboards?

Yep! I know exactly what you mean. I've said the same thing.

Billboards...that's a good idea, M2U! Worth submitting to the Task Force I think!
On I-25 too!
$50,000 Reward: Who killed John Jacoby and William Connole?

Eta: I've mentioned before that think Boulder Weekly (and or Westword) should do an article, especially since it's the Anniversary time. It would be right up BW's alley. I can even picture the cover, a big bullseye...BW has so much distribution on the streets and in stores...

 

[Forager]

Rudy Rivas, ABC15;
Apr 28, 2016
30 questions: Have we seen new freeway shootings in Phoenix since Leslie Merritt Jr. was in jail?



PHOENIX - Have serial shootings really stopped on Valley freeways since Leslie Merritt Jr. was put in jail?

... While Arizona's Department of Public Safety has remained tight-lipped since a court's gag order was dropped this week, the quick answer to the question of more shootings is yes.

In the past seven months, and while Leslie Merritt Jr was sitting in jail, there have been at least two new freeway incidents involving projectiles and 28 other incidents that ABC15 has been tracking. [End of quote]

That's after the initial eleven attacks "confirmed" by Phoenix DPS before Leslie Merritt was pinched, and after discounting several apparent road rage incidents. There are a ton of parallels to the NoCO case.

Here's the map that ABC15's Digital Team created and mapped possible highway attacks around Phoenix.



Of the incidents listed with indications of which window had been shattered, all involved side, rear or sunroof windows. LE is dismissing most as debris strikes, doesn't think any have anything to do with the earlier eleven (which include the four attributed to Merritt), and isn't asking for the public's help with them. The Phoenix press rarely covers individual window shatterings any more.

The thought naturally occurs that they are seeing this only because they are looking for it - that this sort of thing is happening a lot, all the time on all highways, but no one usually notices it. Most places, by this line of reasoning, would have the occasional jerk who shot out a window or two, and lots of debris induced side, rear and sunroof shatterings that we never hear about, and no one is in a position to seen the extent of the problem. We only see it when there has been a sensational, clearly intentional attack and everyone starts talking and suspecting that naturally occurring shatterings are really part of a series of attacks.

But some people are in a position to know what "normal" is like: people who fix car windows, and people who patrol highways. I have yet to hear any of either group come forward to say anything like: "Oh, come on, I see this sort of stuff all the time and have for years." Glass repair people quoted in press reports, and live ones I've talked with, say that they rarely see side, rear and sunroof windows broken by road debris.

When you look around the country, you do see a fair number of vicious, apparently random road attacks, often with follow up stories about other possible attacks, but you don't see streaks of 30+ incidents as we have in NoCO and Colorado. During the three years 2013-2015, where were only three that topped 20 incidents; two of them are still unsolved, and one was shown to be the work of a single shooter, Mohd. Whiaker of Kansas City. (Source spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet..._QEuVgSyY7Fc1C6ztmJ3hRghAA/edit#gid=220320673).

 

[margarita25]

Keep rockin Forager!

 

[Maxine2U]

Task Force is on the front page today in The Coloradan. I haven't had a chance to read it yet (I have 2 kids three and under :scared but it looks like a summary of the pc.

 

[margarita25]

Task Force is on the front page today in The Coloradan. I haven't had a chance to read it yet (I have 2 kids three and under :scared but it looks like a summary of the pc.

Thanks for the heads up. Will head right over!

Eta: oh, you must have meant the physical newspaper...I didn't see anything on the website.

Glad to hear though!!

 

[Maxine2U]

Yes since we are new to town we subscribe to the actual paper paper, ha. Hoping to gain knowledge about my town. Pfft. I have zero time. I have been looking for those things that you guys posted a pic of, the things that are supposed to pick up where shots fired are coming from. I haven't seen one yet. I drive around a lot, in the hot zone for the shootings, and now that they've got these two cars for us to look for - I have to say I do not see many mini coopers here. It seems like most everyone here drives very middle of the road types of cars. I've never seen so many Subarus. That and 4Runners.

 

[Forager]

Yes since we are new to town we subscribe to the actual paper paper, ha. Hoping to gain knowledge about my town. Pfft. I have zero time. I have been looking for those things that you guys posted a pic of, the things that are supposed to pick up where shots fired are coming from. I haven't seen one yet. I drive around a lot, in the hot zone for the shootings, and now that they've got these two cars for us to look for - I have to say I do not see many mini coopers here. It seems like most everyone here drives very middle of the road types of cars. I've never seen so many Subarus. That and 4Runners.

Thanks for looking for those! I appreciate it. Having a presence on the ground is a great help.

 

[margarita25]

(If and when CR's shooter(s) and Jacoby's and Connolle's killer(s) are ever caught, I am going to throw a huge party in the parking lot with all kinds of treats!! :cupcake: :toast: I might even hire a live band! :guitar: arty::cheer: )

 

[margarita25]

Fwiw, (I know it seems minor, but posting for reference).

"A Longmont resident in the 1900 block of Lincoln Street said someone shot a window in his house with a BB gun on Monday. There are no suspects."

http://www.timescall.com/news/crime/ci_29844003/police-notes-longmont-resident-beaten-up-by-3

 

[margarita25]

Car windows shattered in Co Springs:

Car Windows Shattered While Driving Down North Academy
Updated: Wed 5:41 AM, Apr 27, 2016
http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/Windows-Shattered-While-Driving-Down-North-Academy-377218671.html

Whatever was thrown at her daughter's car window, thankfully did not make it through the windshield. But it left a massive crack, and in some places, the windshield was gone.

It was one of several reported instances last weekend where someone threw a rock or shot at a moving car.

The woman was driving southbound on North Academy Friday night when something smashed into her windshield. She had just passed through the light at Meadowland."

Snip

"When officers arrived, they told her this wasn't the first case they had heard of in that area. The Colorado Springs Police Department confirmed they are investigating several cases like this that all happened along Academy between Union and Austin Bluffs. Police tell us the cases all happened on Friday and Saturday nights around 9-10 o'clock.

Another family had their passenger window smashed out while they were driving in that same stretch of Academy. A 1-year-old was in that car.

Their incident happened on Saturday night."

 

[Forager]

Thanks for that, Mags. I'd missed that even though it had "Car Windows Shattered" right in the headline. I'm going to have to rethink my Google queries.

I've put an orange placemarker (Rocks, 4/27/16) on the map below to show the location. The stretch of highway along which these rock attacks took place is about 1.4 miles. I'm guessing that this is a different perp. than the guy(s) shattering windows on I-25, but maybe with the same impulse.

Besides these and the NoCO shatterings, we have now also seen series of shatterings along C470, southwest of Denver, in 2013 (1), around Morrison, southwest of Denver, in 2015 (2), and in Aurora, southeast of Denver, in 2015 (3). It's starting to look like a local sport.

Sources Notes
1) Highway C470. "Shattered windshields are adding up - and so is the number of worried motorists travelling Colorado State Road C-470, a stretch of the Denver beltway.Eleven drivers have had their car windows mysteriously broken by what might be gunfire along Colorado State Road C-470... ." Per CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mystery...rs-on-colorado-state-road-470-in-denver-area/
2) Morrison area. "Lt. Anthony Joiner II of the Morrison PD said that there have been four window shattering incidents in the last month and a half." Lance Herderson, The Denver Channel, http://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...e-another-rash-of-window-shatterings-on-c-470
3) Aurora area. Various shatterings, including several known to be deliberate. See the Other On Road Incidents layer of the case map for details and source links.

 

[searchinGirl]

It had to happen sooner or later...and there it was hitting my windshield...weird side-flying road debris...driving down County Line Road south of Longmont yesterday afternoon...it came from opposing traffic and happened so fast I can't say what kind of vehicle it was for sure that passed me... I think it was a pickup but it might have been hauling farm equipment because that's what I saw out my rearview......but this is the largest star I have encountered on my windshields in 39 years of living here...it was a loud pop and certainly scared me...and while the windshield didn't break I doubt it will hold up for very long...I've heard to squirt superglue into the hole...

 

[Forager]

It had to happen sooner or later...and there it was hitting my windshield...weird side-flying road debris...driving down County Line Road south of Longmont yesterday afternoon...it came from opposing traffic and happened so fast I can't say what kind of vehicle it was for sure that passed me... I think it was a pickup but it might have been hauling farm equipment because that's what I saw out my rearview......but this is the largest star I have encountered on my windshields in 39 years of living here...it was a loud pop and certainly scared me...and while the windshield didn't break I doubt it will hold up for very long...I've heard to squirt superglue into the hole...

View attachment 93939View attachment 93940View attachment 93941

Our very own victim! What are the odds?! I'm glad you didn't get hurt. Please offer my sympathy to your wallet.

So you heard the loud pop that the victims usually mention. How easy would it have been to mistake it for a gunshot?

How distracting or agitating was it? I keep waiting for one of the shattering victims to get into an accident, but it never seems to happen.

As you tell your story to friends and acquaintances, try to make sure to give them a chance to tell whatever stories they may have of recent shatterings.

 

[searchinGirl]

Our very own victim! What are the odds?! I'm glad you didn't get hurt. Please offer my sympathy to your wallet.

So you heard the loud pop that the victims usually mention. How easy would it have been to mistake it for a gunshot?

How distracting or agitating was it? I keep waiting for one of the shattering victims to get into an accident, but it never seems to happen.

As you tell your story to friends and acquaintances, try to make sure to give them a chance to tell whatever stories they may have of recent shatterings.

it all happened at once...the noise and the hit... it sounded like a shot and definitely shook me a little...but I'm proud to say I didn't flinch...the thing is it was all over before I could do anything about it...had the windshield shattered I would have had to pull over but I think I could have done that...have there been many front windshields shattered?... seems like most of them were rear or side that actually shattered?...

 

[margarita25]

It had to happen sooner or later...and there it was hitting my windshield...weird side-flying road debris...driving down County Line Road south of Longmont yesterday afternoon...it came from opposing traffic and happened so fast I can't say what kind of vehicle it was for sure that passed me... I think it was a pickup but it might have been hauling farm equipment because that's what I saw out my rearview......but this is the largest star I have encountered on my windshields in 39 years of living here...it was a loud pop and certainly scared me...and while the windshield didn't break I doubt it will hold up for very long...I've heard to squirt superglue into the hole...

View attachment 93939View attachment 93940View attachment 93941

Uh, maam, I'm going to need to process your vehicle!

Glad you're ok. Sounds like an accident?

 

[searchinGirl]

Uh, maam, I'm going to need to process your vehicle!

Glad you're ok. Sounds like an accident?

no accident...our insurance wouldn't cover it anyway...