3 gunmen in Safeway heist
Jefferson County – Three men suspected of tying up five Safe way employees and robbing the store of cash, narcotics and other items are being sought by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
At midnight Sept. 5, the trio entered the Safeway at 7500 S. Pierce St. and hid until after the store closed, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.
The men, armed with semiautomatic handguns and a cane or crowbar, confronted several employees and said they intended to rob the store, police said.
The men gathered the five employees, bound their hands together and put them in a janitor’s closet at the rear of the store.
Police said the men used a key to get into the area where safes are kept and took several thousand dollars. They also broke into the pharmacy and stole what police described as a large quantity of narcotics.
Also missing was the store’s entire stock of Sudafed, Mach3 razors and an entire display of new DVDs, police said.
The men used a key to disable the rear door’s alarm system and left through the loading dock area.
Police described the suspects as a 25- to 30-year-old white or Hispanic man, 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-9 with an average build and pockmarked face and short, dark, curly hair; an 18- to 19-year-old Hispanic man about 5-foot-5 with a thin build and black, short, combed-back hair; and a white man taller than the other two who has a clean-cut appearance and was wearing black-frame glasses during the robbery.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Sheriff’s Office tip line at 303-271-5612.
FORT COLLINS
Sex-assault charges for chess camp owner
A 51-year-old Fort Collins man is facing child sex-assault charges after police investigated complaints from children attending his chess camps.
Robert Michael Snyder was arrested Tuesday afternoon on two counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and two counts of sexual assault on children, pattern of abuse. Snyder is being held at the Larimer County Detention Center in lieu of $750,000 bail.
Snyder is the owner of Chess for Juniors.
Police began a lengthy investigation after receiving complaints from children attending the chess camps of inappropriate touching and behavior by Snyder, said Fort Collins police spokeswoman Rita Davis.
ESTES PARK
Semi rear-ends school bus; four kids injured
Four children were taken to Estes Park Medical Center with minor injuries after a tractor- trailer rear-ended a school bus carrying 30 children Tuesday afternoon, officials say.
The four, whose ages are not known, were transported to the hospital for precautionary measures, said Eric Wynn, Colorado State Patrol spokesman. None of them had serious injuries, he said.
The truck struck the back of the bus about 3:15 p.m. on U.S. 34 about 5 miles southeast of Estes Park, Wynn said.
COLORADO
New group joins foes of Referendums C, D
A new campaign committee advocating a “no” vote on Referendums C and D has joined the intensifying battle over the November budget proposals.
Headed by Republican House Minority Leader Joe Stengel and funded largely by the principal fundraiser for Republican Marc Holtzman’s gubernatorial campaign, Blair Richardson, the issue committee joins two other registered opposition groups.
The new group, “If C Wins, You Lose,” is narrowly focused on the policy aspects of the debate – not the personal attacks that some small-government conservatives have used against proponents such as Republican Gov. Bill Owens, Stengel said.
Meanwhile, seven environmental groups on Tuesday announced their support for Referendums C and D. The groups announcing their support included the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Sierra Club, the Colorado Environmental Coalition and the Center for ReSource Conservation.
Opponents of the ballot measures said they had received an endorsement from Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist from the University of Chicago.
DENVER
Bail set for flier whom passengers subdued
Bail was set Tuesday for a man who was subdued by passengers on a Frontier Airlines flight last week from Houston to Denver.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Schlatter set bail at $10,000 and said Jason Tervort would need to live with his family in Utah as a condition of his release. Tervort was indicted Monday by a federal grand jury on counts of interfering with a flight crew member and assault aboard an aircraft.
According to court documents, Tervort became disruptive and assaulted a flight attendant. Four or five men on board Flight 147 – including one man witnesses said was a Hurricane Katrina evacuee – subdued Tervort.
When the plane landed and authorities boarded, they found Tervort face-down on the floor and duct-taped so he couldn’t move.
If convicted, Tervort faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the interference charge and up to six months’ imprisonment on the assault charge.
LOUISVILLE
Back surgery focuses on Beauprez’s bad disc
U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, a Republican candidate for governor, was scheduled to have back surgery Tuesday night at a hospital in Louisville, said campaign coordinator John Marshall.
“Congressman Beauprez is having a back procedure this evening to deal with a disc he herniated this past weekend,” he said.
Marshall said he does not think the procedure will impact Beauprez’s run for governor or his congressional duties.
