BOULDER, Colo.—A flooring and fireplace store employee whose body was found in the store along with bodies of the Longmont couple who owned it is suspected of shooting and killing them, Boulder police said Tuesday.
Police Chief Mark Beckner said a search of Robert Montgomery’s Boulder home found journals and entries on a computer showing he was upset about a change in policy on sales commissions and bonuses.
Officers responding Monday to a report of gunshots fired found the bodies of Montgomery, 50, Sean Griffin, 40, and Staci Griffin, 41, inside Boulder Stove & Flooring, after a customer and sales employee heard gunshots in a back office. Beckner called the apparent motivation for the slaying, “trivial.”
“Obviously we all don’t think that’s a motivation to kill somebody but this person probably wasn’t in his right mind,” Beckner said.
Boulder County Coroner Thomas Faure said in a statement that Montgomery committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Faure said Sean Griffin died of gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen and ruled his death a homicide.
An autopsy on Staci Griffin is planned for Wednesday.
Beckner said Montgomery had just arrived at work around his scheduled 11 a.m. Monday start time when the shooting began. The employee and the customer inside the store ran out, got into the customer’s car and dialed 911 as they drove away. Police arrived within minutes and found the bodies.
A 9 mm handgun believed used in the shootings was in Montgomery’s right hand, Beckner said.
Both the Griffins appeared to have suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Investigators found 13 shell casings at the scene and a live round in the gun. Montgomery’s backpack had a magazine with 10 additional rounds.
Montgomery purchased the gun on May 7 and had practiced shooting, but investigators hadn’t discovered any evidence showing he planned the slayings, Beckner said.
Montgomery lived alone, was unmarried and had no children, said Boulder police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley. Nor did he have a criminal record in Boulder, she said.
Montgomery worked at the store since January 2003, four years before the Griffins bought the store, according to police and public records. He was a former software engineer who worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research from 1991 to 1994, according to a spokeswoman at NCAR.
Montgomery’s profile on the store’s website, which has been taken down, said he also worked as a software engineer at a Boulder firm. On his profile, Montgomery jokingly said he was related to a fictional caveman who invented fire.
