Arvada – A woman died Monday after the car she was driving went into Farmers Highline Canal in Arvada.
Rescuers pulled the woman and her companion out of the water.
The vehicle was traveling in the 8300 block of West 74th Avenue when the driver veered off the road into the canal. Police say she may have suffered from a medical emergency that caused the accident around 12:30 p.m.
The 2001 Chevrolet Impala floated about a quarter-mile before stopping in the canal, which has more than 4 feet of flowing water in it, said Donny Varra, captain of the Swift Water Station in Arvada.
“They are lucky the car was upright,” he said. “This canal usually has only about 2 feet of water in it, but the water is flowing pretty high right now.”
The driver was unconscious and the passenger was awake when rescuers arrived. The driver was transported to Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge and her passenger was taken to St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver.
The passenger’s condition is unknown, but rescuers say she appeared to be OK and didn’t have life-threatening injuries.
The women’s names were not released.
ARVADA
Gun goes off during drive-through scuffle
An Arvada man accidently fired his gun during a scuffle at the drive-through window of a Taco Bell early Monday, police say.
Larry Lunnon, 54, was arguing with a man in his early 20s at the restaurant at West 88th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard at about 2 a.m. when he pulled out a gun, according to Susan Medina, Arvada police spokeswoman.
The younger man, who was driving a truck, grabbed the gun, and as the two men struggled, the gun went off, Medina said.
While an Arvada police officer searched Lunnon’s Honda Civic, he found a suspicious-looking device. The Jefferson County Bomb Squad was called to the scene and determined that the device was a hoax, Medina said.
Lunnon faces a number of charges including reckless endangerment, illegal discharge of a firearm, felony menacing and possession of a false incendiary device.
WHEAT RIDGE
2 accused of firing shotgun at officer
Two people suspected of firing a shotgun at a Denver police officer during a traffic stop were tracked to a Wheat Ridge neighborhood and captured on foot, officers say.
Danual Vantuinen, 20, and a juvenile suspect were arrested Monday morning and were being held for investigation in the shooting, said John White, Denver police spokesman.
A Denver officer tried to make the stop at 7:38 a.m. at Interstate 25 and 20th Street, White said. Someone in the car fired the shotgun, spraying the windshield of the patrol car with pellets but not hitting the officer, he said. The officer did not return fire.
The suspects were arrested at 8:06 a.m. after they abandoned their car in a Wheat Ridge residential neighborhood, White said. Authorities used dogs to follow the suspects.
SILVERTHORNE
Police chief dies of apparent heart attack
Police Chief Kent Donahue has died from an apparent heart attack, city officials said Monday.
A city news release said Donahue, 49, died Sunday in Denver after returning from a trip to California. No other details were released.
Donahue had been chief since August. He spent the previous 27 years with the Greeley Police Department. Funeral arrangements were pending.
BOULDER
Driver kills cyclist, says he dozed off
A 17-year-old from Boulder, Chandler Thorpe, said he fell asleep at the wheel before he hit and killed a cyclist on U.S. 36 in Boulder on Monday morning, according to the Colorado State Patrol.
The accident killed Scott Kornfield, 28, of Thornton at 7:50 a.m. Thorpe was going south in his 1994 Ford Explorer when he dozed off, crossed the median and hit Kornfield in the northbound lane, officials said.
Another cyclist, Nathaniel Gillman-LLerandi, 36, of Lafayette was not injured, though he and Kornfield were riding side by side at the time of the accident.
According to troopers’ preliminary investigation, no alcohol or drugs were involved. The accident remained under investigation Monday evening.
Thorpe faces a preliminary charge of careless driving resulting in death.
BRECKENRIDGE
Hurt hiker recovering after being rescued
Martin Eisenberg was recovering in fair condition Monday at Denver’s St. Anthony Central Hospital after a fall near the summit of Quandary Peak over the weekend.
It took rescuers nearly 13 hours, until 1:20 a.m. Monday, to bring the 65-year-old Summit County resident down from the steep, wet mountain, employing 32 rescuers and more than 2,000 feet of rope, said Joe Slivka, a member of the Summit County Rescue Group.
Besides heavy rain and snow, rescuers were stalled by nearby bursts of lightning.
“He was badly damaged” but lucid as rescuers brought him down, Slivka said.
Eisenberg and a friend had set out on a hike up the 14,265-foot mountain about 7 a.m. Sunday, Slivka said. They were about 750 feet below the summit just after noon when they decided to slide across a snowfield on their boots, a mountaineering technique called glissading.
Just before they began, Eisenberg lost his footing and slid about 40 feet over rocks into a gully known as Monte Cristo Couloir, Slivka said.
Eisenberg lives nearby, so they used a personal radio to reach a family member, who called rescuers.
AURORA
Activist at Churchill meeting to stand trial
An activist arrested during a raucous meeting to discuss embattled University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill must stand trial on a charge of assaulting an officer, a judge ruled.
Shareef Aleem, 36, was arrested Feb. 3 during a meeting of the university regents in Aurora to discuss whether to fire Churchill for comparing some Sept. 11 victims to a notorious Nazi.
A judge ruled last week that prosecutors have enough evidence to try Aleem on a charge of second-degree assault on a police officer.
He faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted.
Aleem and university police scuffled when the officers removed him from the meeting. Prosecutors say officer Greg Barth lome suffered nerve damage to his elbow and cuts on two fingers when Aleem pushed him into a railing.
Aleem’s attorney, Wazir-Ali Muhammad, said a video shows Barthlome fell into the railing when officers converged on Aleem from behind.
The disturbance erupted when the regents announced they would not take public comments.
