Update below: At 10 a.m. today, March 15, the Northern Colorado Shooting Task Force, originally created to investigate a string of 2015 shootings that included two murders, will hold its first media briefing in recent memory. Law enforcers are expected to provide details about the arrest of Christopher Parker, a 35-year-old who made a court appearance yesterday in connection with one of the aforementioned killings: the apparently random gun-down of William "Bill" Connole Jr., 65, on a Loveland street in June of that year.
Whether Parker is being investigated for any more of these crimes is unknown at this writing.
In the weeks before being taken into custody, Parker took to Facebook to share hundreds of random thoughts and observations, many of them either profane or threatening.
Some of the items on the page, which sports a profile photo of skulls with bones in their teeth and a gallery festooned with macabre images of skeletons and ghoulish graphics, directly refer to Loveland.
Examples include "This prayed on my broken jaw leave Loveland lake raider cap broken jaw leave. He pray to murder little girl to bust me," "Zach Parrish WS for Jesse Loveland pigs and Tom clements," "The only chance for the Loveland cops to try to win to exectcute the cops that's have hurt or tried to kill me the one who broke my tooth against the seat with his forearm so on."
Additionally, this pair of jabs appeared on March 12: "Move all Loveland police to Mexico I show you video" and "You wanna play Loveland."
Parker's most recent Facebook notes, posted through about 11 a.m. on March 13, form a twisted stream of consciousness characterized by violent or offensive subtext: "Im not the coroner...Dr Duke godamn luke...His 12 bitches lined up pussy squirts on film...I told him 12 ID do it...I sure liked shooting for Paul he paid late night drug steals whores...Blonde offspring guy...I unloaded my four ten...No on paul...Funny farm fucking guy...Bitches lsd he said Marty and Alonso coke blowjobs...They said...Janelle diesel...Paul likes cop pussy made his glasses thicker he said....Then Paul well the coroner shot his dad it was over...You gotta know Paul cop women whore big dick and tells he turned Mexican he had his boy...Always talking about my murder skills...I sold it 30-06 Paul said I would be greater the Charles Manson."
The arrest of Parker represents the most major development in a case that terrorized Northern Colorado residents for months.
In April 2015, Cori Romero of Milliken was shot in the neck as she was driving on Interstate 25 in Larimer County. During the days that followed, five separate reports were made concerning car windows shattered as the vehicles traveled on Northern Colorado roadways, whether because of random gunfire or for more benign reasons. In many cases, law enforcers couldn't be certain.
These incidents were followed by shatterings six and seven, which took place between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on April 29, both on Interstate 25 — one near mile marker 257, the other in the vicinity of mile marker 276.
Then, in mid-May, John Jacoby, 47, died after having been shot twice as he rode his bicycle on County Road 15, south of the County Road 72 intersection on the north side of Windsor, where he lived.
A few weeks later, at around 11 p.m. on June 3, Connole, a onetime computer-industry worker and cancer survivor, was strolling near the intersection of East First Street and St. Louis Avenue in Loveland when he was shot. Despite the efforts of emergency personnel who rushed to the scene, he couldn't be saved.
No one knew if all of these incidents were related, or even if each of them qualified as a crime. The Northern Colorado Shooting Task Force was formed in an effort to answer such questions, and in late June, the group circulated images of a 1970s model, full-sized, single-cab Chevrolet or GMC pickup described as a vehicle of interest in the Connole killing. But this outreach didn't bear fruit, and when the shootings ceased, the story slowly faded from the headlines.
Until now. The aforementioned media briefing will take place at the Loveland Police Department, 810 East Tenth Street. It will be streamed live on the Larimer County Sheriff's Office Facebook page.
Update: At the press briefing noted in our previous coverage, the Northern Colorado Shooting Task Force revealed that Christopher Parker is being held on suspicion of not one but two charges: first-degree murder in the June 3, 2015 death of William Connole in Loveland and attempted first-degree murder of a motorcyclist a few minutes later.
The Larimer County Sheriff's Office reveals that Connole was shot and killed at approximately 10:45 p.m. on the 3rd, about fifteen minutes before a person was shot at while riding a motorcycle near the Loveland intersection of East 18th Street and Denver Drive. The shootings are said to have been linked by forensic evidence.
Thus far, no other 2015 incidents have been definitively connected to Parker, but the investigation is ongoing.
"The arrest of Parker was possible because of information received from the public," the LCSO goes on. "We understand everyone’s desire to know the details of the investigation that led to this arrest, but the Task Force will not release any other information in efforts to maintain the integrity of this very complex case."