As the sun cast growing shadows across his southwest Denver neighborhood Sunday afternoon, Tom Rico looked outside and saw his neighbor and his neighbor’s young son playing in their yard.
“It looked like it was just any regular Sunday,” Rico said.
Hours later, the neighbor — 29-year-old William Thalley — was under arrest on suspicion of child abuse after, police say, he shot his son, 3, in the leg and then lied to investigators about what happened.
The boy’s mother, 25-year-old Nicole Fernandez, was also arrested — on suspicion of being an accessory to child abuse.
The boy, who was shot once in the leg and whose name was not released, was in serious condition Monday.
How a placid Sunday afternoon playtime changed to bloody nighttime chaos is something police are still sorting through and something neighbors of the family in the 3400 block of West Alaska Place puzzled over Monday.
A number of neighbors said they did not hear or see anything suspicious Sunday night and that they were unaware of the arrests until awakened by television news trucks parked in their block early Monday.
Several neighbors said the family had lived in the house for about a year and mostly kept to themselves.
News of Thalley’s and Fernandez’s arrests came as a surprise.
“It’s sad,” said Rico, who lives next door.
Around 7 p.m. Sunday, officials at St. Anthony Central Hospital notified police that a 3-year-old boy had been brought into the hospital with a gunshot wound.
When police arrived at the hospital, Thalley and Fernandez told officers that the boy had been shot by an unknown attacker at Morrison Road and South Lowell Boulevard, Denver police Lt. Matthew Murray said.
That story, however, unraveled under further scrutiny. Police now believe Thalley shot the boy inside the family’s home on West Alaska Place, Murray said.
No one answered the door at the home Monday.
Thalley has a rap sheet that includes convictions for false imprisonment, assault and making threats against people or property.
In 2001, he was sentenced in Denver to 180 days in jail and domestic violence counseling after being convicted of misdemeanor assault and false imprisonment, according to court records.
In 2005, he was convicted in Jefferson County on a charge related to violating a restraining order.
Denver officers cited Thalley in January for illegally owning a pit bull.
Murray would not reveal Monday whether police had been called to Thalley’s home, saying such information is confidential as part of the ongoing investigation.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
