FIRESTONE, Colo.—A man suspected of shooting and killing a man and woman and then himself in a house Saturday was the woman’s ex-husband, police said.
Michael Acker, 47, was suspected of shooting Sharla Pierce, 41, and her friend, 38-year-old Michael Federico, before killing himself early Saturday in a subdivision 30 miles north of Denver, police Lt. Stacy Davis said.
Officers, including a Weld County SWAT team, responded to the home around 5:30 a.m. on a report of shots fired and rescued Pierce’s 24-year-old stepdaughter and the stepdaughter’s 3-year-old son through a window. The stepdaughter heard but did not see the shooting, Davis said.
Officers, believing the suspect was barricaded inside the house, evacuated surrounding homes while trying to obtain a search warrant and trying to make contact with those inside. They found the three bodies after entering the home around 9:15 a.m.
Davis said officers now believe all three were dead before they first arrived on the scene.
Investigators said Acker and Pierce had divorced within the last several months and that Acker had been distraught over their relationship.
