FIRESTONE — Police believe a 47-year-old man shot and killed his former wife, a friend of hers and then himself inside a Firestone home early Saturday morning.
SWAT team members found the bodies of 41-year-old Sharla Pierce, 38-year-old Michael Federico and Pierce’s ex-husband, Michael Acker, inside her home several hours after neighbors first reported hearing gunshots, according to Firestone police Lt. Stacy Davis.
Davis said Pierce and Acker had been divorced for several months.
Federico did not live at the home, Davis said.
Firestone is east of Interstate 25 in Weld County about 30 miles north of Denver.
Neighbors in the 10000 block of Barron Circle in the Eagle Crest mobile home park called police about 5:30 a.m. and reported a possible burglary with numerous shots fired.
Officers were able to help Pierce’s 24-year-old stepdaughter and the stepdaughter’s 3-year-old son escape through a back window after the shots were fired, Davis said.
The stepdaughter heard but didn’t see the shooting.
“Officers retreated from the house because they thought there was a barricaded suspect inside,” Davis said. “A hostage negotiator tried to make contact.”
Firestone police called the Weld County SWAT team, and the street was evacuated and blocked off, she said.
“SWAT officers stood on my porch and made my wife dress our 2-year-old daughter and got her out of there,” said a neighbor, Tyler Denton, 22. “They got the rifle brigade out here. It’s got to be every officer in Firestone.”
Firestone police officers sought a search warrant before entering the home at 9:15 a.m., Davis said. When SWAT officers entered the home, they found the three bodies, she said.
Davis said police now believe that all three people were already dead when officers arrived at the scene.
“We’re in the process of an ongoing investigation,” Davis said.
Police are speaking with the victims’ relatives to try to understand what provoked the shootings, but police said Acker had been upset about the breakup.
Colorado Bureau of Investigation records indicate Acker was a registered sex offender, convicted in 1993 of sexual assault on a child.
Pierce’s neighbor, Pat Thompson, said she has lived in Eagle Crest for five years. She knew Pierce, though not well. She didn’t know her name but said they often chatted as Thompson watered her yard.
She was interested in knowing how Thompson kept her grass looking so healthy.
“She was friendly to everyone, it seemed,” Thompson said.
Thompson said there had never been violence in Eagle Crest, which she described as a tight-knit community.
“The neighbors (here) kind of watch out for each other,” Thompson said.
Staff writers George Plaven and Karen Auge contributed to this report.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
