Police & Law Enforcement

Daycare facilities have a number of methods to get their charges to fall asleep during nap time: lowering the blinds, playing soothing music and more. But police believe Dedrie Womack, 44, took things a step too far — by giving as many as 35 children a sleep aid. Details below…

Is gang violence flaring up in Aurora? On Monday, we told you about three shootings over the weekend, two of them in Aurora, and noted speculation that the incidents could be gang-related. Now, three suspects are in custody in regard to a shooting that followed a fight on an RTD…

A new report on the use of solitary confinement in America’s prisons and jails, highly critical of the practice and challenging many common myths about who’s in lockdown and why, looks closely at recent reform efforts in the Colorado prison system and concludes that many inmates can be removed from…

Unfortunately, weekend shootings that may be gang-related are becoming more commonplace in the Denver metro area of late. After the previous weekend, we told you about a shooting in Park Hill that looked like it might have a gang connection. The Denver Police Department has not announced any arrests in…

As documented on his Facebook page, John White is a veteran who’s participated in mixed martial arts bouts. Now, however, he’s in the fight of his life — and so is the two-year-old son of his girlfriend, who’s in critical condition at last report. White, meanwhile, is under arrest on…

My fiance Austin O’Loughlin died last night at 2 a.m. and a huge part of me died with him. I haven’t stopped crying since i found his body and i don’t know what to do now. The only man I ever truly loved so deeply. I’m never goin to be…

Paul Wettengel, 45, has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a transgender man at a Boulder bus stop. It’s a disturbing story that demonstrates the challenges that members of the transgender community continue to face simply for being themselves. A report about the incident in the Boulder Daily Camera describes Wettengel as…

A small crime can lead to tragedy — and that appears to be the case in a double-shooting following a car chase from Cortez, Colorado to Shiprock, New Mexico. Two people are reportedly dead: a man and a young girl. And what spurred the incident? The theft of $41 worth…

In recent weeks, we’ve reported about a number of gang-related shootings in the Denver area, with a particular focus on incidents that took place in the Cole and Park Hill neighborhoods. But high-profile offenses like these don’t necessarily mean crime as a whole is more prevalent in these parts of the…

There are plenty of playful Facebook photos of Josh and Leah Cabrera — and even a comic illustration of the pair. These images only make the way their lives ended seem that much more tragic. According to the Colorado Springs Police Department, Josh, 35, shot and killed Leah, 33, before…

Law-enforcement opponents of the 2012 marijuana measure Amendment 64 predicted that crime would escalate if the measure was approved. In contrast, A64 backers argued that crime would actually go down as a result of limited pot sales being legalized. After voters gave their blessing to the amendment, the debate continued,…

According to an arrest affidavit on view below, Englewood’s Jackie Degarmo was last reported to have been seen on February 21 of this year. However, her daughter, Alisia Blythe, didn’t tell authorities she was missing until more than two months later — April 24. On May 3, Degarmo’s body was…

A Loveland police officer has been arrested on charges that include domestic violence and child abuse. What’s his name? The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office isn’t releasing it “in order to protect the identities of the alleged female victim and any children involved.” Is this a double standard? After all, individuals…

Last October, we told you about the death in Indiana former Aurora resident Afrikka Hardy, nineteen, allegedly at the hands of Darren Vann, a sex offender. At the time, authorities believed that Vann may also have been responsible for the murders of six additional women, making him a serial killer. Months…

A weekend shooting in Park Hill has received relatively little attention. One reason: The serious injury that took place didn’t result in death. But the incident, which took place a little over a mile from an attempted gundown of a man as he put his baby in his car late last month…

Overnight, two more shootings took place in Denver, with one man dead and another critically wounded, and police are suggesting that gangs may have been involved. They’re the latest of several disturbing events that have residents in a large portion of the city on edge. In recent weeks, we’ve reported…

Back in January, we noted that the death of Jessie Hernandez, a seventeen-year-old shot and killed by Denver Police Department officers while she was behind the wheel of a stolen car, resulted in a new focus on the law enforcers shooting into moving vehicles. The rationale for doing so? In…

On his Facebook page, Alejandro Garcia lists his name as “Alejandro ‘A-Town’ Garcia,” in apparent homage to his hometown…

The case of Greeley’s Kyle Moore raises questions about two controversial topics related to modern policing. The first: Should police officers shoot at moving vehicles, as they did in the January death of seventeen-year-old car thief Jessie Hernandez and an Arapahoe County incident earlier this week? The second: When is a…

Back in March, we told you about the conviction of Donald Shores for the brutal 1994 sex assault of a 67-year-old woman. By the time Shores was found guilty, his victim had already died. She passed away in 2000. As for Daniel Fellovetr, he, too, has gone the way of all…

Earlier today, we told you about the manhunt for Maurice Kendrick, a Colorado Springs parolee who allegedly assaulted women who rejected his advances and opened fire at a house that had hosted a get-together of folks who watched the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight. Now comes word of another incident thought to…