A man suspected in several carjackings who led police on a wild chase before taking a family hostage and killing himself in Denver had a long arrest record and was pegged a “habitual criminal” in 2004.
Steven Garrett Stewart, 39, was found dead early Wednesday in the southwest Denver apartment where he had barricaded himself, police said.
Police said Stewart entered the home at the Peachtree Apartments, 3550 S. Kendall St., on Tuesday evening and held several people hostage. Police freed the last hostage by 10:15 p.m. after a lengthy standoff.
The Denver coroner’s office said Stewart shot himself in the head, and it ruled his death a suicide.
Contacted by phone Wednesday, Trisha Sanchez, 37, Stewart’s ex-wife, said the circumstances of his death were a shock. But, she added: “It sounds like a lot hasn’t changed. He never got his life on track. I had always hoped he would get his act together.”
Littleton police said Wednesday that Stewart also was the man who went on a brazen daylight crime spree over the weekend, including stealing a car from a couple at gunpoint, sparking a massive search.
“Several witnesses and victims have identified him” in those armed crimes, said Lt. Mike Broadhead.
Broadhead said witnesses told investigators that it appeared Garrett was under the influence of a narcotic, possibly methamphetamine.
“He had an opportunity to hurt a lot of people, and he chose not to,” Broadhead told The Associated Press. “So whatever was going on with him, at least he was able to keep it together and not hurt other people.”
According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Stewart’s arrest record was 16 pages long and included an August assault case in Littleton and a July criminal case involving theft and motor-vehicle theft.
The string of charges against him involved a 1999 burglary, as well as fraud and criminal impersonation in 2004.
He served nine months beginning Nov. 31, 2002, in a minimum-security facility in Delta, was released on parole in August 2003 and arrested five months later for fraud.
He was incarcerated again in late 2006 on the fraud charges, among others, and released from the Four Mile minimum security center in Cañon City in September 2007.
Police believe that on Tuesday afternoon, Stewart stole a Buick from a mechanic’s shop, possibly after stealing a motorcycle. Littleton police believe he later carjacked a van at gunpoint and, eventually, carjacked a Honda at the Aspen Grove shopping center.
Just before 6:30 p.m., Stewart was driving the black Honda erratically on the West Hampden Avenue frontage road near Morrison Road and South Kipling Parkway. He swerved off the road and through two yards and then plowed through a hedge and across a dirt area before finally crashing into a fence.
As he ran from the crash, he turned to fire at least one shot at pursuing officers, police said.
Police confirmed that a woman was in the car along with the suspect and was injured, but they had no details on her relationship to Stewart or the chase.
He then entered the Peachtree apartment, taking the residents hostage. Some, including children, were released. The final hostage, a woman, was successfully freed by a SWAT operation at 10:15 p.m.
Sometime after midnight, police fired gas into the apartment and rushed in.
They found Stewart dead.
