Eleven people were wounded Sunday in a pair of drive-by shootings in the Denver area that happened just hours and miles apart. The first shooting happened about 4:30 p.m. in Byers and Pecos Park in Denver’s Valverde neighborhood. Nine people were shot during a family gathering. All of the victims are expected to survive. Witnesses […]
shootings
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
STEM School Highlands Ranch shooter sentenced to life in prison after emotional, day-long hearing
Betrayal. Lasting fear. Anger. A community forever shattered. Victims of last year’s deadly shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch, including students who barely escaped death, spoke of still-raw wounds as 17-year-old Alec McKinney, one of the two shooters responsible for the attack, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 […]
Posted inSun Investigation
Colorado’s 2015 law changing how officer-involved shootings are reviewed still lets police agencies investigate themselves
Five years ago, Colorado lawmakers passed a bill that banned police departments and sheriff’s officers from investigating themselves without any outside assistance after one of their officers or deputies shoots someone. But here’s the hitch: the legislation, Senate Bill 219, specifically states “shooting,” meaning it doesn’t apply if someone dies at the hands of law […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Colorado Supreme Court upholds state’s law banning large-capacity gun magazines
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday upheld the state’s 7-year-old ban on gun magazines that hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition. Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a hard-line gun rights organization based in Colorado, challenged the large-capacity magazine law, arguing that it violates the state constitution. Specifically, the organization contended that the law goes against […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Politics and Government
How one of Colorado’s smallest Black Lives Matter protests became its most violent
ALAMOSA — The protesters, about a dozen in all, gathered on June 4 in the intersection of State Avenue and Main Street. Like protesters across the country in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing by police, they were demanding police accountability and racial justice. The group occupied the crosswalk during red lights, then stepped to […]
Posted inUncategorized
Thousands gather in Aurora to protest Elijah McClain’s death
Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside an Aurora police building Saturday to call for justice in the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold by police last year. McClain’s death last August has prompted a handful of small protests over the last 10 months, but his case has garnered renewed attention […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Colorado governor signs sweeping police accountability bill into law. Here’s how it will change law enforcement.
Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed Colorado’s sweeping police accountability bill, passed in the wake of George Floyd’s death, into law, calling it a necessary and positive step toward healing the state’s pain and hearing the public’s concerns. Senate Bill 217 was introduced and passed in a matter of two weeks after being introduced in […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
7-year-old boy fatally shoots his 3-year-old sister in Westminster
A woman was arrested after her 7-year-old son accidentally shot his younger sister to death after finding an unsecured and loaded shotgun at the family’s home in suburban Denver. Police in Westminster say the boy found the gun Tuesday morning and shot his 3-year-old sister while playing. The mother, 24-year-old Michaela Dawn Harman, was in […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
Prosecutors won’t seek death penalty against older of two suspected STEM School Highlands Ranch shooters
CASTLE ROCK — Prosecutors will not pursue the death penalty against a teen charged in a shooting at a suburban Denver school that killed a student. In a court filing on Thursday, 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler did not explain the decision not to seek capital punishment for Devon Erickson. Brauchler said that the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Colorado lawmakers have passed a death penalty repeal. What will Gov. Polis do with the men on death row?
The Colorado General Assembly on Wednesday sent a bill to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk eliminating the state’s death penalty, forcing him to decide what comes next for the three men who are on death row and make the most consequential choice he’s faced since taking office last year. Polis has said he will sign the […]