A Westminster homicide suspect was arrested Tuesday afternoon after fleeing law enforcement in Eagle County, sparking a police shooting and widespread manhunt that shut down Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon for hours.
Kenny Espinosa, 27, is a suspect in the death of a man found shot to death at Wolff Run Park early Saturday morning, Westminster Police Department spokesperson Samantha Spitz said.
She confirmed that he had been taken into custody shortly after 2:30 p.m. in a text message to The Denver Post.
Westminster police responded at 7 a.m. Saturday to a request for a welfare check at the park after people found the man lying face-down in the parking lot near West 76th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard. The man, who was dead, had several gunshot wounds, police said.
Eagle County sheriff’s deputies forced a suspect car linked to a Westminster homicide to a stop on eastbound I-70 early Tuesday morning. Espinosa then fled the scene after a shootout with law enforcement that injured another person in the car, according to a from the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office.
Eagle County Sheriff James Van Beek previously identified Espinosa as a 30-year-old man.
The Westminster shooting victim will be identified by the Adams County Coroner’s Office.
Vail Public Safety Communications, the dispatch center that serves all of Eagle County, received an alert just after 4 a.m. Tuesday that Espinosa may be traveling near Gypsum, according to the release.
Espinosa was believed to be armed and accompanied by hostages, Eagle County sheriff’s officials said in the release. Investigators have not yet determined if the five people in the car with the homicide suspect were hostages or how they were related, Van Beek said.
An Eagle County deputy found a car matching the suspect vehicle’s description speeding down westbound I-70 near Glenwood Springs early Tuesday morning and pursued it, according to the release.
Deputies tried to pull the driver over after he exited the westbound highway at No Name and got back onto eastbound I-70, but the driver refused to stop, sheriff’s officials said. Eagle County deputies then forced the car to a stop with a spike strip near milemarker 130.
Two people got out of the car, at least one of whom had a gun, and shots were fired between the two and law enforcement, Eagle County sheriff’s officials said. Sheriff’s officials did not specify if Espinosa was the driver.
One of the two was shot during the exchange and one fled the scene, prompting a manhunt, according to the sheriff’s office.
The remaining four passengers in the car were then contacted by law enforcement, according to the release.
As of 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, I-70 had reopened between exit 114 for west Glenwood Springs and exit 147 in Gypsum, .
Updated 2:56 p.m., Jan. 14, 2026: Because of incorrect information from a source, a previous version of this story incorrectly spelled Kenny Espinosa’s last name. The story has been updated.
