Colorado Springs – Two deadly shootings in Colorado Springs on Tuesday and the discovery Monday night of a body west of Garden of the Gods park has the city on track to break its record for homicides.
At 4:40 a.m., police were called to the 800 block of Chapman Drive to find Jamil Salaam, 22, fatally shot in the parking lot of Pine Creek Apartments.
Police are looking for three men who were wearing bandannas over their faces in connection with the shooting, said Colorado Springs police Lt. Skip Arms.
About four hours earlier, police said two men killed John Phillip Kidwell, 25. An autopsy showed he died of a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Shortly before 7 p.m. Monday, police were called to Rampart Range Road west of Garden of the Gods. They found an unidentified body wrapped in a blanket inside a sport utility vehicle. An autopsy Tuesday was inconclusive and the death may not be a homicide, the coroner’s office said.
Arms said the three deaths are not related, though police don’t have a motive. Gangs, he said, could be involved in the killing of Salaam.
“Certainly with bandannas and what not, the possibility of (gang violence) would exist, but until we locate the suspects, it’s just sort of supposition,” Arms said. “I don’t have enough information on the victim to know whether he had gang involvement or not.”
So far this year, the city has had 16 homicides, more than the 15 homicides in all of 2006 and the 12 homicides recorded in 2005. The city had a record 28 homicides in 1991.
“When we go back to 1990, the average per year is 19.2 homicides,” Arms said. “We’re approaching the average.”
Arms said the homicides do not fit a pattern. The first two of the year were from the Castle West Apartment fire. There also have been three domestic-violence murder-suicides.
“I don’t know that we’ve had that many in a year before,” Arms said. “It’s not any one specific area, but obviously, when we see spikes like this, it does concern us.”
The national average for violent crime in midsize cities is 10.2 crimes per 1,000 people. Colorado Springs has 5.4 violent crimes per 1,000 people, Arms said.
“We’re really about half of what the national average is for violent crime when you put it in context,” Arms said. “That says violent crime isn’t running rampant in Colorado Springs but … we are concerned when we have incidents of high profile that come together like this.”
Luann Hernandez, 32, who lives in the apartment complex on Chapman Drive where one of Tuesday’s shootings occurred, is concerned.
Hernandez moved into the Pine Creek Apartments two months ago because she could afford a two-bedroom unit, which costs $400 a month.
“I might have to move,” she said. “It might be time to go find me a house. It’s going to cost a lot, but it will be worth it.”
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
