GUILTY CO - Possible Serial Shooter Has Colorado Drivers on Edge *Arrest* #4

[margarita25]

Not at all! That was excellent stuff, and hard work, I know. Thanks for digging so deeply into it. That's interesting how you linked incidents by time and place. The recent unseen shootings weren't far from the areas near Loveland that saw so much activity in the spring, and particularly in the Romero, Jacoby, Cannole, Missed Anon. Mortorcyclist series. (You'd asked, above, about the distances involved. The Highway 402 unseen shot was within a 2 to 4 mile drive of the Connole killing. The shots that missed the motorcyclist were another couple of miles further away by car. The shots near the I-25 car park were a 2.5 mile and 5 mile drive from the Motorcyclist and Connole shootings respectively.)

But I'm not sure I'd tie in the I-25 Shatterer(s), whom I'm seeing as a different person these days, from the more vicious, blunt shooter involved in the Romero, Jacoby, Connole, Motorcyclist cases. It isn't even clear whether the shot that was heard near I-25 was from I-25 or the park and ride just off of it, and more in the side-road setting of the Romero... Motorcyclist shooter. And these shots were taken with a fullfledged firearm, which the I-25 Shatterer doesn't seem to use.

Odds are though, that the recent shots fired were just by some jerk with leftover egg nog and the new pistol he got for Christmas.

Wait a minute, park and ride? Where do you see this (my brain still has gas). TiA!

 

[Tawny]

Thanks for tracking this. I've been following, have nothing worth contributing yet.

 

[Maxine2U]

I also would like to say thank you. My house is just barely off that map, but my daughter's school is on it.

 

[pappa rob]

I also would like to say thank you. My house is just barely off that map, but my daughter's school is on it.

OT I'd just like to say I'm sorry that you have to live in that kind of war zone. Even though it's not always a popular thing I'll say a prayer for you and your family..

 

[Foxfire]

Thanks for tracking this. I've been following, have nothing worth contributing yet.

I also would like to say thank you. My house is just barely off that map, but my daughter's school is on it.

Tawny and Maxine2U, thanks for following and chiming in. Your ideas, theories, and opinions are welcomed. Maxine2U, if you don't mind sharing, what is the pulse of the locals; your friends and neighbors, concerning the NOCO Shooter and window shatterings, from your perspective?

 

[Forager]

Wait a minute, park and ride [as the location of one of the two 12/26/15 reports of shots fired from a vehicle] ? Where do you see this (my brain still has gas). TiA!

Therein lies a little tale: I first read of this incident while doing a Google's search. Google's search blurb about the incident included this: "...shots fired near the Park and Ride off Interstate 25 and Colorado Highway 402 south of Loveland... ". But the current version of the Coloradoan story reports the location as "... one on southbound I-25 and one on westbound CO Highway 402,...". My guess is that the location description got edited for some reason. I've put the map marker where I-25 passes that park and ride, for want of better.

I tried asking the reporter, Katie de la Rosa, for tighter location descriptions, but she said she didn't have any and referred me to Larimer CSO. (Nice of her, by the way. Few reporters will answer questions.) I tried looking in the CSO's site's "Incident Blotter" listing for the address, but the records for 12/24-12/26 never got posted. I tried asking Larimer CSO in an e-mail, but didn't get a response.

So if this were a movie, we'd know that a conspiracy was afoot, right? In the real world, I'm afraid, I have to go with: People are vague about locations, somebody forgot to post blotter entries for those days, and Larimer CSO doesn't figure it's their job to facilitate my hobby. (And to be fair, Larimer SCO's site gives better public access to information than most. Few other police operations post the equivalent of the Incident Blotter, for instance.)

ETA: As I was closing up my browser, I noticed this 12/2/15 post on the Larimer CSO's site:
Citizens Academy

Dates for the 2016 Citizens Academy Spring Session have been scheduled. Classes will start on February 11th and run through May 12th,... . The Citizens Academy is designed to give citizens an overview of the operations of the Larimer County Sheriff's Office. Sessions covering patrol operations, investigations, crime lab, emergency management and emergency services, SWAT and other special units, and volunteer operations are scheduled. These sessions are presented by the deputies and commanders responsible for each area... <See the site for more. It sounds good, but you have to be a citizen of Larimer. >.

http://larimersheriff.org/site-page/citizens-academy

 

[margarita25]

DPS: Shot fired along I-17 in Phoenix
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news...03/dps-shot-fired-along--17-phoenix/78238124/

 

[Hatfield]

Just was wondering about the "light Rail" option of the Park and Ride. Does anyone know if those trains have windows that open?

Was looking at the rail maps that show where one can board and it seems that some of the Rail routes run closely by a lot of the window shattering incidents. Since whoever did the random shootings seems to be getting away without being seen was just wondering if its possible he could have used the rail option of the park and ride system. It could only be a possibility if a window could be opened on those rails OR if he rode between cars and took a shot from between cars. If a window opened and he had a rail car to himself then it would be a quiet place that nobody would suspect someone shooting from. In NYC we saw a few people that liked to ride between cars on the trains.

The Rail system may offer a unique vantage point of the highway as the Blue Routes on the maps show they closely follow some of the incidents.

Probably not very likely a shooter would use the Rail system but was just thinking about it since it was mentioned about park and ride. And that 1 incident that struck the sunroof of a vehicle was thinking about that one that maybe the rail car was above the highway at a certain point.

Probably not likely but wanted to mention it.

Below are a couple map links showing the rail routes and information about the rail system.

http://www3.rtd-denver.com/elbert/SystemMap/

http://www.rtd-denver.com/HowToRideLR.shtml

 

[Tawny]

I've never ridden the light rail but I can ask around.

 

[Forager]

DPS: Shot fired along I-17 in Phoenix
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news...03/dps-shot-fired-along--17-phoenix/78238124/

Funny that that piece didn't mention the earlier highway shootings, mostly on I-10 in that area. I-17 crosses I-10, and yesterday's shooting on I-17 was about nine miles north of I-10 in Phoenix.

The I-10 highway shootings case is starting to feel more and more like the NoCO case to me. It starts out with a flurry of detailed news stories trying to make sense of what little is known. LE is talking. Some of the incidents are clearly nasty attacks, LE links several of them, and those become the core of the case. In NoCO we focused on the linked Romero/Jacoby and Connole/Motercyclist shootings. In Phoenix we had 11 shootings that LE would "confirm", and LE announced that it had tied at least four of them to Leslie Merritt. But then seemingly random attack keep happening: lots more windows shatterings on I-25, and some more cars shot and windows shattered on I-10. Natural or deliberate? Related or unrelated? No one is sure what is happening. LE in CO and AZ start to mumble about road debris and the importance of not divulging case information. Detail becomes scant, the press isn't clear what the narrative should be, and coverage of the kinds of incidents that rated camera crews in the early days, are lucky to get into a "Police blotter" column now.

To be fair, ABC in Phoenix has done a pretty good job of following the case. Here's a link to ABC's map of "incidents". (You'll notice that they are careful to distinguish, on the map, the 11 incidents that LE has "confirmed", and the 15 that are "unconfirmed shooting locations" (the orange triangles).

You look for this stuff and you find it scattered around the country (I tried, and did, you'll recall). But you find an awful lot of it in Phoenix and in NoCO.



LEGEND:
Everything in RED is believed to be connected to Merritt
Everything in YELLOW involved a bullet
Everything in ORANGE involved a projectile
TRIANGLES are "POSSIBLE INCIDENTS"
CROSSHAIRS are DPS confirmed incidents

 

[Tawny]

Maybe a truck driver who lives in one or the other with a regular route to and from?

 

[Forager]

Just was wondering about the "light Rail" option of the Park and Ride. Does anyone know if those trains have windows that open?

Was looking at the rail maps that show where one can board and it seems that some of the Rail routes run closely by a lot of the window shattering incidents. Since whoever did the random shootings seems to be getting away without being seen was just wondering if its possible he could have used the rail option of the park and ride system. It could only be a possibility if a window could be opened on those rails OR if he rode between cars and took a shot from between cars. If a window opened and he had a rail car to himself then it would be a quiet place that nobody would suspect someone shooting from. In NYC we saw a few people that liked to ride between cars on the trains.

The Rail system may offer a unique vantage point of the highway as the Blue Routes on the maps show they closely follow some of the incidents.

Probably not very likely a shooter would use the Rail system but was just thinking about it since it was mentioned about park and ride. And that 1 incident that struck the sunroof of a vehicle was thinking about that one that maybe the rail car was above the highway at a certain point.

Probably not likely but wanted to mention it.

Below are a couple map links showing the rail routes and information about the rail system.

http://www3.rtd-denver.com/elbert/SystemMap/

http://www.rtd-denver.com/HowToRideLR.shtml

Intriguing! I hadn't known that existed. I like to try to trace the rail, but am having trouble understanding what its route. The linked map doesn't really show it, and I wasn't able to turn up anything helpful on the internet. Can anyone help?

 

[searchinGirl]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTD_Bus_&_Light_Rail#

This is a link to a Wikipedia article about Denver Light Rail and RTD...there is a map of light rail that as near as I can tell was accurate as of 2013...I believe it doesn't travel any farther north than the stockyards toward Commerce City but I heard that a route is being built from downtown to the airport...other routes extend west south and southeast...we once were promised a northern route but it didn't happen...I don't think the light rail has windows that open but I do believe they are equipped with surveillance cameras...i have noticed along I-25 several new park-n-rides accessible from frontage roads at nearly every exit...hadn't thought about a shooter being on a bus but they do have windows that open a little and high-back seats that limit visibility on every row...I'm pretty sure the buses have cameras... and sometimes very few people on them so I suppose it's possible...

 

[margarita25]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTD_Bus_&_Light_Rail#

This is a link to a Wikipedia article about Denver Light Rail and RTD...there is a map of light rail that as near as I can tell was accurate as of 2013...I believe it doesn't travel any farther north than the stockyards toward Commerce City but I heard that a route is being built from downtown to the airport...other routes extend west south and southeast...we once were promised a northern route but it didn't happen...I don't think the light rail has windows that open but I do believe they are equipped with surveillance cameras...i have noticed along I-25 several new park-n-rides accessible from frontage roads at nearly every exit...hadn't thought about a shooter being on a bus but they do have windows that open a little and high-back seats that limit visibility on every row...I'm pretty sure the buses have cameras... and sometimes very few people on them so I suppose it's possible...

Thanks searchingirl, Hatfield and everyone else.

From your above quote:

"i have noticed along I-25 several new park-n-rides accessible from frontage roads at nearly every exit"

"Frontage roads"...It might be worth a look to look at possible trajectory angles from the park and rides as well as individual bus stops, as related geographically to individual incidents/frontage roads, say for example mile marker pick a number say 245 and/or near Romero (even though she recalls a vehicle pulling up next to her). No harm in taking a peek. If this happened to be a possibility, someone firing from a stop, LE surely would be able to deduce this as a possibility vIA trajectories (of course how much if any have many of the shatterings, I mean road debris, were immediately investigated...

So, maybe someone sitting on a bench at the stop, with a backpack looking thing on their lap they could fire through, then the bus comes and picks them up (on schedule hopefully for them) and they're outta there clean. Nobody would bat an eyelid on the busy highway rush at someone sitting at a stop. Just throwing it out there, sounds crazy even to me lol.

 

[margarita25]

(Great to see some new folks joining us )

 

[Hatfield]

Thanks searchingirl, Hatfield and everyone else.

From your above quote:

"i have noticed along I-25 several new park-n-rides accessible from frontage roads at nearly every exit"

"Frontage roads"...It might be worth a look to look at possible trajectory angles from the park and rides as well as individual bus stops, as related geographically to individual incidents/frontage roads, say for example mile marker pick a number say 245 and/or near Romero (even though she recalls a vehicle pulling up next to her). No harm in taking a peek. If this happened to be a possibility, someone firing from a stop, LE surely would be able to deduce this as a possibility vIA trajectories (of course how much if any have many of the shatterings, I mean road debris, were immediately investigated...

So, maybe someone sitting on a bench at the stop, with a backpack looking thing on their lap they could fire through, then the bus comes and picks them up (on schedule hopefully for them) and they're outta there clean. Nobody would bat an eyelid on the busy highway rush at someone sitting at a stop. Just throwing it out there, sounds crazy even to me lol.

Re BBM

The thing so interesting about all the highway window shatterings besides the sheer volume of them was the fact that the victim cars drivers seldom saw anything. Just a few of the victims mentioned seeing another suspect vehicle. Quite a few of them mentioned seeing no other cars around them so it has perplexed us how the shooter(s) could be doing so many of these without being seen.

This is why thinking outside the box is good because it may end up being something like this. We all probably agree it would be strange and unique if a shooter(s) used the trains or buses as his escape plan but it seems a possibility.

Your post helped by reminding us of the outside waiting areas too which I had not thought about too much until now. Like the bus waiting areas and train waiting areas. Remote stops. Some of them have enclosures while waiting for a bus or train to keep rain off of folks. Those waiting areas could also be a possibility. Especially if a shooter waited until he saw the train or bus approaching and took a shot right before arrival of his bus or train. He could quickly get on his bus or train and get out of dodge. Linking some pics below.

On an actual train, it would be possible that a person could get on a car by himself with nobody else on the particular train car. When I rode the subways in NYC it was common to see people moving from 1 train car to another while the train was in motion. They enjoyed it. LOL
Its kind of dangerous to switch cars when train is moving but some people enjoy the danger of it. LOL
So originally was thinking along those lines that someone may have purposely went to an unused car to have the train car to himself and then when it maybe stopped at a remote station with nobody getting on, the shooter would have a chance to take a shot at the highway and then the train would slowly move away. His getaway would be easy and nobody would be the wiser. Of course if windows don't open on the trains then his only opportunity would be to shoot between the cars which is also a possibility or while waiting at the wait stop. He sure could hide any noise from his gun by the loud train noise as the train gets to moving away.

For buses it is similar and maybe easier since if the seats had those high backs like was mentioned and the person went to the back of the bus and maybe hardly anybody on board the bus. Especially if the shooter had a gun equipped with a silencer device. The silencers are much more common in past 10 years. They are still illegal but easy to make one or get an after market one.

The link below shows some of the type of train or bus waiting areas that have those nice enclosures to keep folks out of the rain. Have to scroll down some. Would make a nice hiding area where nobody could hardly see what they were doing. I couldn't find better pictures but some of the stops I have seen have remote little sheds for people.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...k-explores-Britain-railway-request-stops.html

 

[Forager]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTD_Bus_&_Light_Rail#

This is a link to a Wikipedia article about Denver Light Rail and RTD...there is a map of light rail that as near as I can tell was accurate as of 2013...I believe it doesn't travel any farther north than the stockyards toward Commerce City but I heard that a route is being built from downtown to the airport...other routes extend west south and southeast...we once were promised a northern route but it didn't happen...I don't think the light rail has windows that open but I do believe they are equipped with surveillance cameras...i have noticed along I-25 several new park-n-rides accessible from frontage roads at nearly every exit...hadn't thought about a shooter being on a bus but they do have windows that open a little and high-back seats that limit visibility on every row...I'm pretty sure the buses have cameras... and sometimes very few people on them so I suppose it's possible...

Thanks! I think you're right about the light rail system not getting very far north. The northernmost stops seem to be a bit south west of Commerce City, and about 12 miles south of the southernmost NoCO I-25 window shattering. (That isn't to say that the light rail lines don't approach some of the highway shootings south of Denver. I haven't tried to test that.)

 

[Foxfire]

OT-
Since last evening, I've been following and participating in a Longmont, CO Police Department missing person case alert of a 16 year old girl Child Abduction on Facebook creating awareness.. Due to the decision by LPD not to issue an Amber Alert. Over 4,550 shares were made of the LPD bolo post asking for the public's help... It is amazing at just how important of a resource that social media has become in missing/murdered persons investigations.

Longmont Fire, Police and OEM -FB
https://www.facebook.com/LongmontFirePoliceOEM/?fref=ts

Thomas Fechtler was arrested in Alabama at 10:50 am. The victim is safe.
______________

Missing Person/Child Abduction Alert:

LONGMONT POLICE ARE LOOKING FOR THE PUBLIC'S ASSISTANCE IN LOCATING:

Wanted Kidnapping/Sexual Assault. Thomas Ludwig Fechtler AKA Thomas Kitchen (08/03/64) 5&#8217;10&#8221; 170 Brown eyes Gray hair. Thomas Fechtler is wanted on a felony arrest warrant for sexual assault on a child - position of trust, 2nd degree kidnapping and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He is believed to be driving a 2007 Toyota Rav4, light green, bearing Missouri plate WH9K2U. This vehicle has rear end damage...
<snipped - read more @ link>

 

[Hatfield]

From the above link:

"Driver saw a small flash and then something hit his windshield.

Westbound Weld Co. Rd. 18 (direction?) near Weld Co. Rd.53, Keenesburg"

FOXFIRE, do frangibles cause a flash? Isn't that the gun? Gun type? "Saw a small flash"...seems important, not sure how?

Flash...? I hate that I'm relatively gun stupid right now,

What causes a flash specifically (Google in progress)

Remember when you were asking about the "flash" of a gun. Here is perfect example in the first picture in the link.

Since it is nighttime the flash of the muzzle blast is visible in this picture. I believe this is regular handgun with regular ammunition. Most all guns will produce a visible flash out the muzzle at nighttime for a split second. During the daytime it is still there but you cant see it as well.

However with certain types of special ammo or special loads of bullets you can get a visible flash even in daytime. Which is why it would have been interesting to know whether that one window shattering incident we were talking about happened in daytime or nighttime.
It could have helped us assume if he was using special ammo.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/09/gunman-shoots-philadelphia-police-officer-in-the-name-of-islam.html

 

[Forager]

Police near Baltimore have caught a crew taking shots, on foot, at a car from the side of an underpass on I-95 in South Baltimore. I wonder what it is that the I-25 window shatterer is doing so differently that he is never noticed.

Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun, 1/9/16
Police ID four arrested in shooting incident underneath I-95

"[Four men were arrested] after officers saw shots being fired underneath the I-95 overpass in South Baltimore. Officers... were driving south on McComas Street around 4 p.m. when they saw a muzzle flash and two men firing into traffic at a car traveling in front of them. The city officer jumped out of his car and chased the men up an embankment toward the CSX tracks. They were later found hiding in a wooded area... . Police were unable to find any weapons in the woods and could not drain and search a nearby sediment pond.

[The officer] saw a 2015 GMC with two other men parked on a dirt median on transportation authority property, and recognized 19-year-old Antonio Zagaris in the rear passenger seat. He had arrested Zagaris in July for having a 9 mm pistol... . Officers recovered a loaded .32-cal. revolver and baggies with suspected cocaine in the vehicle.

[The men arrested include]... a convicted murderer. Another faces a separate drug charge. A third ... had been arrested last summer with a handgun.


The Google Maps screen shot below is what the officer would have seen as he was driving east on Macomas just before the I-95 underpass that goes up to Key Highway on the left.