Commerce City – Scores of pit bull supporters waving signs that said, “Ban the deed, not the breed,” and displayed pictures of their pets showed up at the city’s recreation center Monday night to protest a proposed pit bull ordinance.
Protesters came from all over the Denver metro area, organized by the recently formed groups “Breed Education, Not Discrimination,” or BEND, and “Breed Awareness, Not Discrimination,” or BAND, said Tina Villani, a coordinator.
“They’re trying to ban the breed that is well-loved,” said Ralph Griffith, a pit bull owner in Commerce City. “I moved here because they’re basically legal here. I’m more afraid of the cops in Commerce City than of the pit bulls.”
Commerce City has proposed that pit bull owners carry $100,000 in liability insurance and register their dogs with a chip embedded under the skin, said Perry Van Deventer, city manager. New pit bulls would not be allowed in the city, he said. City Council members put off considering the new rules until Aug. 15 and will review a vicious- animal ordinance already in place. An ordinance could be approved in September, he said.
“This way, we can have a public hearing and get more information,” Van Deventer said.
DENVER
Higher-ed panel gets two new members
Gov. Bill Owens appointed two members to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education on Monday.
Richard Ramirez of Fort Collins is a principal in the Poudre School District, and Edward Robinson of Greenwood Village is an executive at Robinson Dairy, according to a news release.
Commission members will have to be approved by the state Senate.
They serve four-year terms on the board.
AURORA
Parking-lot shooting kills 18-year-old man
Aurora police are investigating the shooting death early Monday of an 18-year-old man in an apartment-complex parking lot.
The shooting happened at about 12:10 a.m. in the 9800 block of East Colfax Avenue, after the man reportedly argued with his girlfriend in her apartment, police said.
The victim, who was not identified, left the apartment and was shot in a parking lot at Emporia Street and East Colfax Avenue.
He collapsed in a stairwell, where police found him. The man died a short time later at a hospital, police said.
The victim’s girlfriend called police. Investigators do not have a suspect in the case.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call the Police Department’s homicide unit at 303-739-6711.
FORT CARSON
5 members of base unit killed in Iraq
Five soldiers based at Fort Carson have died recently in Iraq, including four who died in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonated near their Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Defense Department announced Monday.
The Pentagon identified those killed July 24 in the Bradley Fighting Vehicle as Staff Sgt. Jason W. Montefering, 27, of Parkston, S.D.; Spec. Ernest W. Dallas Jr., 21, of Denton, Texas; Sgt. Milton M. Monzon Jr., 21, of Los Angeles; and Pfc. Ramon A. Villatoro Jr., 19, of Bakersfield, Calif. All were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
Pfc. Robert A. Swaney, 21, of West Jefferson, Ohio, died Saturday in Baghdad when an explosive device detonated near his Humvee, according to the Defense Department.
He was part of the 3rd Squadron.
The explosion near the Bradley set off ammunition in the armored vehicle, Ramon Villatoro Sr. of Bakersfield said last week, quoting an Army sergeant who notified him of his son’s death.
FORT CARSON
3,600 headed to Calif. for pre-Iraq training
More than 3,600 Fort Carson soldiers are headed for a month of training at Fort Irwin, Calif., to pick up skills they will need for duty in Iraq.
Maj. Michael Humphreys said the Fort Carson-based brigade has been training for a year for the Fort Irwin session.
The brigade and other units in the 4th Infantry Division will head to Iraq this fall to replace the 3rd Infantry Division, said Gen. Richard Cody, the vice chief of staff.
Humphreys said the month- long separation shortly before the brigade’s Iraq deployment this fall will be tough for soldiers and their families. But the training could save their lives in Iraq, he said.
While similar training has been conducted at Fort Carson, Fort Irwin and its 642,000 acres of desert allow full brigades and regiments to train.
Fort Irwin also has Iraqi- American trainers who populate towns and villages built on the fort that give soldiers a preview of urban warfare.
The 3rd Brigade has been retrofitted to fight without help from larger units, with more supply trucks, a larger military police contingent and improved intelligence gathering. The new 3rd Brigade has 400 fewer soldiers.
