An El Paso County judge set a $5 million cash bond Tuesday for a University of Colorado Colorado Springs student accused of fatally shooting his roommate and another person inside a dorm room.
Prosecutors argued he still posed a threat to witnesses and students at the university.
Nicholas Jordan, 25, allegedly tried to flee the state before police found him inside a car about three miles from campus with a gun inside, prosecutors said during a hearing in a 4th Judicial District courtroom.
“I think he still poses a threat to some of the witnesses and other folks for UCCS campus as well as the public in general,” Robert Willett with the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said. “I think that he is a danger to the public and he is a flight risk.”
Police arrested Jordan, of Detroit, on Monday morning, three days after UCCS student Samuel Knopp and Celie Montgomery were found dead inside a dorm room on campus. Jordan, who was a registered student and Knopp’s roommate, faces two counts of first-degree murder, police said.
With his hands cuffed behind his back and wearing an orange jumpsuit, Jordan stood next to his public defender for the 8-minute hearing.
Further details on the shooting were not released, and Judge Shannon Gerhart declined to unseal Jordan’s arrest warrant, meaning it cannot be released to the public.
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Prosecutors’ safety concerns clashed with assurances by Colorado Springs police and university officials that there was no threat to the campus after the killings of Knopp and Montgomery.
Police instead called the shooting “an isolated incident” and declined to address questions, including about the suspect, his possible motive or his connection to the university.
The department was in “close communication” with UCCS police, university officials and the victims’ families on Friday and over the weekend, a CSPD spokesperson said Tuesday.
“If we felt there was any larger threat to the community from this suspect, we would have made that known threat known,” Ira Cronin, a spokesperson said.
University officials placed the campus on a brief lockdown and reiterated there were no safety concerns to faculty or students.
Campus police found Knopp and Montgomery inside a dorm room Friday after receiving a call of shots fired about 6 a.m. Both had “at least one gunshot wound,” Colorado Springs police said.
University officials said Knopp, 24, was studying music and was a “beloved member” of the visual and performing arts department. Montgomery, 26, was not a registered UCCS student.
Jordan’s next court appearance is scheduled for Friday morning.