This Friday the 13th weekend is shaping up to be a particularly memorable one in the annals of the Colorado Springs police blotter -- and it's just started, with an early-hours report of shots fired at a hookah lounge on South Nevada Avenue that left three wounded. Hookah lounge shootings appear to be a rising trend in southern California and Las Vegas, but they have been a rarity in our state -- until now.
But even before the hookah shootings, the local gendarmes have had plenty on their plate. Just in the last 24 hours, they've dealt with several unusual carjackings, a bike-jacking -- the search for suitable transport seems to be a persistent theme -- a bomb-squad call and other weirdness. Consider:
• Last night a carjacking in east Colorado Spring left one victim with a gunshot wound to the chest, after the suspects reportedly commandeered his vehicle, told him to get out, then shot him as he ran. The car in question? A 1999 Toyota Corolla.
• A few hours later, a man outside of a 7-Eleven demanded that a fifteen-year-old "give him something" and acted as if he had a weapon in his pocket. The man, described as having bad teeth, made off with the kid's BMX bike.
• Yesterday afternoon, the Springs bomb squad responded to a call about a suspicious package on the north side and removed one "that appeared to be a small homemade explosive device."
• Also yesterday afternoon, officers arrested a man driving a gold Ford Taurus after its owner complained that it had been taken from him at gunpoint. The night before, detectives conducting surveillance on a stolen Honda Civic nabbed a suspect believed to be involved in a series of similar thefts.
What does it all mean? Among other things, it would appear that a decent ride seems to be in short supply at the foot of Pikes Peak.