Metro law enforcement officers have warned several churches about an apparently suicidal man who threatened to go out “in a blaze of glory” by shooting up multiple churches.
The man identifying himself as “Sid” allegedly told another man he met in a Lakewood biker bar near Federal Boulevard and Evans Avenue about his intentions Monday, said Jim Walters, senior pastor of Bear Valley Church in Lakewood.
Sid allegedly took the other man to his white Ford Crown Victoria in the bar’s parking lot and showed him a couple of rifles in his trunk that he would use in the attacks that would happen Sunday, Walters said.
The man specifically threatened to shoot up Bear Valley Church and another church with Grace in its name, he said.
The witness then called Walters’ church Tuesday and anonymously told a pastor there about the encounter, he said. The phone call was brief with not many details.
Church authorities immediately contacted Lakewood police officers, Walters said. Police then called neighboring law enforcement agencies and warned churches with Grace in their name, said Steve Davis, Lakewood police spokesman said Saturday.
Lakewood will have plainclothes and uniformed officers at Bear Valley Church and other churches including Grace Chapel as a precaution, Davis said
“Right now it’s kind of like a bomb threat,” he said. “It’s not a real credible threat but we’re going to treat it as though it is.”
Walters said there is nobody on the church’s member and visitor’s lists named Sid. Also there has been no one recently who was openly disgruntled with the church, he said.
“But we wanted to take every precaution we could,” Walters said.
Grace Chapel Executive Pastor Dave Palmer said after the fatal shootings at Youth With a Mission in Arvada and New Life Church in Colorado Springs in December they could not afford to ignore such a warning.
Matthew Murray, 24, killed four people and wounded five others in a series of shootings at the church and missionary training center.
“At this point we can’t treat those threats as a hoax,” Palmer said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
