Police, mayor plead for info on four homicides Sunday
There were dozens of witnesses to Sunday’s four homicides in Denver, police said, but as of Tuesday evening, there was not enough information to make an arrest.
Police spokeswoman Virginia Lopez said the department has received tips, but witness statements need to be corroborated before police can publicly name whom they are looking for.
The mayor and police chief have issued a public plea for witnesses to come forward or face prosecution for accessory to murder after the fact. Police say it could take a couple of days before word spreads about the demand for information.
The fatal shootings occurred in a two-hour span Sunday morning in three separate incidents. Two of the shootings happened at Halloween parties attended by young people.
Miguel Santiago, 23, of Denver was killed at 460 Quitman St. when an argument broke out at a party there.
Isaiah Roybal, 21, of Denver, and his best friend, Teddy Guerra Jr., 21, of Lakewood, were gunned down when a fight broke out at a Halloween party at 2091 S. King St.
The last fatal shooting Sunday morning occurred at the Burger King on West 49th Avenue and Federal Boulevard. Gregorio Acero-Estrada, 19, of Craig was shot in the head.
DENVER
Former NFL star indicted in drug case
Former NFL standout Timmy Smith and his brother, Christopher Smith, were indicted Monday by a federal grand jury on cocaine-distribution charges.
Smith, who helped defeat the Denver Broncos in the 1988 Super Bowl, was arrested in September and accused of working with his brother to sell cocaine to an informant, according to a federal arrest affidavit. Timmy Smith, of Denver, was working at a local juvenile-detention center at the time of his arrest.
FORT COLLINS
School locked down as suspect sought
More than 350 Fort Collins residents were warned to stay in their homes and an elementary school was locked down Tuesday morning after a 34-year-old man barricaded himself inside his home for more than five hours in the 900 block of Glenmoor Drive.
Shawn Todaro was wanted on charges of vehicular assault and assault on a Colorado State Patrol trooper. He allegedly fought with a trooper on one occasion and was believed to be armed and dangerous, Fort Collins police said.
He surrendered after five hours but not before residents were told to stay in their homes and Moore Elementary School, 1905 Orchard Place, was locked down as a precaution. Officers and a SWAT team surrounded his residence and negotiated his surrender.
BOULDER
CU names panel to search for chancellor
An 11-member search committee has been formed by University of Colorado president Hank Brown to find a chancellor for the Boulder campus.
The committee of faculty, staff, students, alumni and community members was announced Tuesday and will meet for the first time Nov. 9.
It will find a replacement for Richard Byyny, who resigned in December to become director of a new health policy center at CU Hospital. Phil DiStefano has been interim chancellor.
GOLDEN
Fire at Coors annex hospitalizes two
A fire Tuesday morning in a warehouse of the Coors Brewery’s packaging annex prompted an evacuation and sent two people to the hospital with minor smoke inhalation.
Golden fire officials said the fire was quickly contained by an automatic sprinkler system.
The Fairmount Fire Department also responded to the 9:30 a.m. alarm at the annex near 32nd Avenue and East Street.
An investigation showed that sparks from an electric hand- grinder set material in the conveyor system on fire, Golden fire officials said.
Losses are estimated at about $75,000 in equipment and another $250,000 in building damage from smoke and water.
DENVER
Police data system gains FBI praise
The FBI praised the Denver Police Department’s computerized index system that provides national criminal-history data to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
An audit of the system was conducted by the FBI on Aug. 18.
Officers and investigators use the data in the National Crime Information Center computer system to arrest fugitives, locate missing people, return stolen property and protect officers who might encounter a wanted person in the field.
The system is scored in 10 areas. The best possible score that Denver could have achieved was 10 and the worst was 100.
Denver scored a 13, the best score ever for the department.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Radiation monitors set for security test
Monitors designed to detect and help track down radiation sources such as “dirty bombs” will be installed on traffic-light poles in an early test of a homeland-security system.
The devices, made by Mobile Detect Inc. of Toronto, will transmit radiation levels to the city’s traffic-control center. High radiation levels will trigger cameras to start filming in an attempt to find clues to the source.
“I think this could change the way we do homeland security,” said John Merrick, the city’s lead traffic engineer.
The city is paying for the $48,000 trial, which will include four detectors. If they are deemed a success, Merrick said, he will propose expanding to cover 100 intersections for an estimated $2.5 million.
Merrick said he would ask the federal Department of Homeland Security to pay if the system is expanded.
Merrick said Colorado Springs’ five military bases could be terrorist targets, especially the U.S. Northern Command, the nation’s homeland-defense nerve center, at Peterson Air Force Base.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Ex-deputy coroner guilty of drug theft
A former El Paso County deputy coroner pleaded guilty Monday to charges of stealing prescription drugs from the homes of dead people and selling them.
Leon Carl Moynier, 32, pleaded guilty to felony charges of embezzlement of public property and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
“I was working at the coroner’s office, and I took pills I was in charge of disposing of, and I got rid of them to a few friends,” Moynier told District Judge Robert Lowrey.
