In late July, Judd Golden, chair of the Boulder branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote a letter to the Boulder Police Department complaining about the July 19 tasering of what he described as “an unarmed and apparently mentally impaired man.” He shared this missive with local media –…
Members of the local media are seldom effusive about the timeliness and responsiveness of the Denver Police Department’s public-information office — and a release issued today exemplifies its effectiveness. or lack thereof. “The Denver Police Department would like the community to know they can now follow the DPD on Twitter,”…
It’s a good indication that a temper tantrum has gotten out of control if a S.W.A.T. team is called to respond. That’s what happened Saturday near 68th and Lowell to Christopher Donte Williams, age nineteen, who, for reasons not spelled out in a release from the Westminster Police Department, decided…
UPDATE8-29: Was this hit-and-run death a hate crime? “Let’s just run them over.” That’s the last thing Shala Parker says she heard from the three strangers in the Burger King parking lot before a green Cadillac DeVille plowed over her mother, 49-year-old Lilian Verdonkschot. Parker rushed to her mother’s side…
Early on August 5, Denver police found a body in an alley near 14th and Ogden that was subsequently identified as James Foos, 48. In short order, Charles Garlick, 26, was taken into custody on investigation of first-degree murder. A mug shot wasn’t immediately made public — but now, the…
Crime must not be rampant in Boulder right now — because the police department there has time to produce a composite sketch and send out a press release on an incident that won’t exactly make aging members of the Manson family wish they’d tried something similar. Yesterday afternoon, a man…
There are a lot of things for which most of us would put our lives on the line. Our country. Our loved ones. Giant canvas bags filled with unmarked bills. But a ’95 Nissan? Most of us would just bid that sucker farewell — but not Ryan Calles, 31. According…
At a time when U.S. foreclosures have just hit another record high, is there any person more loathsome than a mortgage scamster? Ask yourself that question after pondering the story of Kedrick McDuffie, the subject of a nine-count indictment just returned by a Denver grand jury. He’s charged with obtaining…
Earlier today, we pointed out that the family of eighty-year-old Dean Withers, who was stabbed at a north metro King Soopers earlier this week, would be holding a press conference in Westminster; Ryan Patrick Nichols, who suffers from schizophrenia, is being held in the incident. Following the event, the Westminster…
As noted in a recent blog, local media seems to care more when white people are shot, and often provides comparatively little coverage when Hispanics or African-Americans like those who dominate a list of Denver homicide victims during the first half of 2009 are slain. That was certainly the case…
At 10:30 a.m. this morning, the family of Dean Withers, an 80-year-old man stabbed in the back at a north metro King Soopers, will hold a press conference at the Westminster Public Safety Center, where a photograph of the victim will be made available. In the meantime, the family of…
This is one of those a-picture’s-worth-a-thousand-words moments. Which is nice, because I’ll be able to cut back on typing. According to the Denver Police Department, officers responded to an August 9 report of a stabbing at 3240 W. Alameda. A wounded man found there later died of his injuries –…
The press releases issued in the wake of yesterday’s officers-involved shooting suggest that Longmont resident Brian Christopher Naranjo, 35, had numerous opportunities to avoid getting shot and killed. Naranjo, who’s been arrested in the past for everything from forgery to menacing (and was wanted on a failure-to-appear traffic charge), led…
Yesterday, we shared a video of protests that took place at a healthcare town hall staged by Representative Ed Perlmutter at a Brighton King Soopers — an event at which feverish, easily manipulated Obamacare haters carried signs featuring slogans such as “Seniors: Get Your Death Pills Here.” In the clip,…
Some crimes are understandable — like, say, a starving child stealing a piece of fruit. And other crimes aren’t — among them, stabbing an 80-year-old man in the back. Ryan Patrick Nichols, 26, has been accused of doing the latter, and the nastiness of the crime, which took place at…
The Snowboard Bandits, who we wrote about last year, terrorized Front Range banks in 2007 and 2008. They were clever enough to disguise themselves in full-body snowboarder gear, but made a slip-up or two once the heists were over — like, for example, trying to launder the money by actually…
Firefighters are supposed to save kids, not endanger them. But if accusations against Shane Hayden, 33, are accurate, he reversed the order of this mission in an especially vile way. Last month, according to the Parker Police Department, Hayden contacted an underage girl online and eventually set up a meeting…
Yesterday, the Lakewood Police Department announced that it was investigating a house fire last week on West 20th Avenue as a homicide; Bonni Bergin, 49, who’d been renting the home, was found dead inside. Now, the LPD has made an arrest. Brit Allan Cox, 40, has been formally accused of…
View Larger Map On Wednesday, we told you about a murder in the alley between the 1400 blocks of Ogden and Emerson, an area captured in the graphic above (if you have problems seeing the image, click “View Larger Map”). Denver Police subsequently arrested Charles Garlick, 26, in relation to…
View Larger Map This just in from the Adams County District Attorney’s Office. Late yesterday, Kevin Duane Stunes was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Nancy Bannock last Thanksgiving at 1616 E. 78th Avenue, an area captured in the graphic above (if you have problems seeing the image, click “View…
Reminder: Doing a really idiotic thing can have a lifetime’s worth of repercussions. Exhibit A: Daniel Lujan, who received a thirty-year sentence yesterday for responding to an argument over a bicycle sale last year by firing a shot that perforated an eight-year-old girl (she recovered, but only after multiple surgeries)…
Last week, Bonnie Bergin’s body was found amid flames that destroyed a house she was renting on West 20th Avenue in Lakewood — and now, the Lakewood Police Department has formally determined that she was murdered. At this point, the LPD isn’t releasing her cause of death, which suggests Bergin,…
