Colorado Parks and Wildlife reports tarantulas "are in the middle of their seasonal mating treks, where males will travel great distances to seek out females in early to mid-fall with the intention of making more spiders." Let them be.
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From California to Connecticut, desperate bears have raided garbage cans, broken into homes and cars, torn through chicken coops and pulled down bird feeders. Wildlife officers in many states have received a record number of calls, working overtime through the summer to deter bears, put out traps and euthanize animals who pose persistent problems.
“I’ve had officers who have had to work three weeks in a row, working 18-hour days, day after day,” said John Livingston, public information officer with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “We have been worried about the mental health of some of our officers who are dealing with these issues. Some of them are having to euthanize a lot of bears this year. Nobody gets into this line of work because they want to put down animals.”
In a typical year, Livingston said, Colorado will euthanize 60 to 90 bears that run afoul of the agency’s two-strike policy for bears that have caused property incidents and are deemed to pose a threat to communities. By the end of August this year, wildlife officers had already euthanized 294 bears. Many states are seeing similar increases.
State wildlife agencies say their officers are spread thin and have had to prioritize which human-bear conflicts to respond to. They have mostly focused on educating residents and removing attractants such as bird feeders and unsecured garbage cans from populated areas. In some states, lawmakers and wildlife officials have stiffened penalties for humans who feed bears, intentionally or otherwise.
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[Photo: Douglas County Sheriff]
[Photo: Lower Valley Fire]
The Garfield County Sheriff's Office reports deputies responded to 508 service calls - including 45 involving bears - during the week ended Oct. 11.
Nita Gonzales, daughter of Denver Chicano activist Corky Gonzales and a longtime activist herself, addressed a crowd of hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the Capitol grounds and across Civic Center Park.
“Does this look like hopelessness? This looks like courage,” Gonzales said from the Capitol steps. “This looks like democracy. This looks like people reclaiming their voice and their power.”
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[Photo: Colorado Newsline]
A stabbing suspect was arrested after a standoff with police at an apartment complex in Thornton.
The incident occurred Saturday night in the 10200-block of Ura Lane.
"While officers were on their way, they learned one person had reportedly been stabbed," police said. "Officers contacted the victim, an adult male, who had non-life-threatening injuries. Officers learned the suspect had gone inside an apartment.
"The suspect refused to come out. While officers were ordering him to surrender, a shot was fired from inside the apartment. No one was hit. SWAT responded, and the 37-year-old suspect surrendered," police said.
Residents were ordered to shelter in place during the incident.
Two Pueblo police officers wounded during an exchange of gunfire with an armed suspect were accidentally shot by other officers, an investigation determined.
The suspect was killed during the Oct. 10 incident at the Regency Park Apartments on Regency Boulevard. Officer Jonathon Woehler suffered wounds to both legs and Officer Justin Ortiz sustained a graze wound to an ankle.
Pueblo Police Chief Chris Noeller said: "As the facts are established, we will examine the incident carefully, including tactics, positioning, communication and decision making. Then this will determine how we improve our training, equipment and procedure."
Van Lemaster, 88, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was charged with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and reckless endangerment in a crash at the popular Tour de Fat bicycle festival downtown in Fort Collins, police said Friday.
The accident occurred when a Chevrolet pickup truck reversing from a parking spot hit an auto, jumped a sidewalk and slammed into a tree on Aug. 29 - killing pedestrian Joshua Robert Douglass, 33, and injuring five others.
"This was an incredibly tragic crash that affected many in our community," Police Chief Jeff Swoboda said.
Investigators ruled out driver-impairment in the crash in the 100-block of West Mountain Avenue, police said.
[Photo: Bike Law Facebook page]
By Colorado Newsline
Fueled by the rising cost of living and cuts to federal benefits, food assistance programs from around the Denver metro area have seen growing demand and an influx of new, first-time families in need of support this year.
Leaders with local food pantries and other nutritional aid groups highlighted the need for expanded funding for federal benefits like the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as broader reforms to make it more effective for the people it benefits, at a roundtable Wednesday hosted by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet at the Food Bank of the Rockies.
In the last year, about 40,000 Coloradans have lost access to SNAP benefits amid changes to program requirements, according to Ron Meehan, government relations manager for Feeding Colorado. Food pantries have seen growing demand as costs for regular families tightened, increasing the number of people who need their services on top of the low-income families who already relied on them.
“This has been a dark moment for our network in terms of need and in terms of significant cuts to a lot of these federal programs,” Meehan said. “At the same time, I think we have a real opportunity moving forward to not just undo damage, but really work together to improve programs and strengthen them more than where they were.”
The Adams County Emergency Food Bank has seen 3,400 new people come through its doors since January, executive director Steph Wayne said. People have started to treat food banks, which are meant to be supplemental, as their primary grocery stores, asking for personal and healthcare products they don’t have the capacity to provide, she said.
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The house was built in 1888, according to Zillow. Firefighters "found smoke and a smoldering fire from two roof trusses and insulation," officials said. "There was old knob and tubing wiring running across the trusses." No injuries were reported. La Junta is located in Otero County in southern Colorado. [Photo: La Junta Fire]
Police arrested a youth as a suspect in an arson fire at a Roman Catholic church in Pueblo.
The Sept. 5 blaze damaged Christ the King Parish at 1708 Horseshoe Drive.
A Ford F-150 smashed into a state patrol car and a semi on I-70 east of Byers early Wednesday, killing a teenage passenger in the pickup truck.
The pickup driver was seriously injured in the accident about 50 miles east of Denver.
The state trooper - who was parked and investigating an earlier wreck involving a semi-truck - was transported to hospital as a precaution.
Initial reports show the trooper's patrol car was partially blocking the left lane of westbound I-70 while tow trucks worked to remove the semi from the center median.
"The driver of the F-150 lost control, striking the patrol vehicle and sideswiping the passenger side," the patrol said. "The F-150 continued westbound, entering the center median, striking the guardrail, and then striking the rear driver's side of the semi-trailer."
The dead passenger was a male, aged 19. The injured diver is a male, aged 18.
[Photos: Colorado State Patrol]
A Yamaha motorcycle slammed into a GMC truck turning left in Loveland killing the biker, a 65-year-old man from Wyoming.
The accident occurred Monday at East 29th Street and North Garfield Avenue.
Fire and parental fright erupted at an apartment building in Aurora on Tuesday.
"A second alarm was initially called due to reports of a child trapped," Aurora Fire said.
Thankfully, "everyone safely evacuated, no injuries occurred" and the second alarm was cancelled, officials said.
The apartment building is located at 1076 South Elkhart Way.
[Photo: Aurora Fire]
A bicycle rider who "failed to stop at a posted stop sign" was struck and killed by a Ford Explorer in Greeley on Monday night, police said.
The accident occurred at 7:50 p.m. at the intersection of 11th Avenue and 4th Street. The bicycle was eastbound on 4th Street.
The rider, an adult male aged 53, was traveling "without operational headlights or tail lamps," police said. He was pronounced dead at hospital.
"Video evidence of the collision was obtained, and based on the physical evidence and footage, investigators determined the bicyclist to be at fault for the collision," police said.
No charges are pending against the Ford Explorer driver.
If you have additional information on the crash, contact Edward.Kubala@greeleypd.com
Investigators, however, have yet to locate James Raymond Taylor since they revealed their findings in April 2020. Taylor, a television repairman, was last seen in Las Vegas in 1976. Today, he would be in his late 80s.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office interviewed hundreds of people in the months following the slaying.
The press labeled the killer a "phantom strangler."
A year after the murder, Sheriff Harold Bray told the Rocky Mountain News: "This case will never be allowed to gather dust in an unsolved file."
In 2007, detectives created a DNA profile using evidence from the Flying G. Through additional testing, a comprehensive profile of the killer was created in 2019 - and within a matter of months all signs pointed toward Taylor.
Beck and Taylor both hailed from the Denver suburb of Edgewater. Beck attended Denver North High School. Taylor had a criminal record.
If you have information on James Raymond Taylor, contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers (720) 913-7867 and reference case 63-10335. It's never too late.
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| James Raymond Taylor in 1961 |
Shooting erupted as a campus police officer confronted a man armed with a gun Monday at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
The gunman was wounded.
"Police received a report of a person acting erratically near Newton Plaza," school officials said. "An officer responded and located a man, who was armed with a handgun and advanced toward the officer. "Gunfire occurred and the suspect was shot."
The incident occurred at about 5:35 p.m.
"The officer immediately rendered first aid, and the suspect was transported to an area hospital for care," officials said. "No other injuries have been reported. This was not an active shooter incident."
Student Nathanael Degefe told Fox 31: “I heard, I think it was like two shots. So I thought it was fireworks. I didn’t think it was anything serious, and I heard like maybe three more. I saw a bunch of students running down this way, just running away.”
Fort Collins police are leading the investigation.
Reports said the shooting occurred near the university's Chemistry Building.
A deputy shot a man carrying a knife in Commerce City on Monday, the Adams County Sheriff's Office said.
The incident - tied to a possible arson fire - occurred near 96th Avenue and the I-76 Frontage Road at about 7 a.m.
The suspect was transported to hospital. No one else was hurt. The deputy was placed on administrative leave, according to the sheriff's office.
Divorcee Aletha Capps, 33, of Castle Rock, was last seen at the Gold Coin Cafe in the mining town of Victor on Dec. 17, 1955, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
She was accompanied by a man named Alva C. Quillin Jr. and they were refused service because they were intoxicated. The pair had also been in Cripple Creek.
Capps' disappearance is one of the oldest in CBI's cold case files. She had a heart condition and wouldn't have survived for long without her medication.
According to the Charley Project crime database, Quillin said "he and Capps went for a drive and their car skidded off the road and got stuck in a snowbank on the Rampart Range Road near Castle Rock. The pair stayed in the car overnight, and the next day Quillin hiked over a mountain to Palmer Lake to get help. When he returned to the vehicle, he said, Capps was gone. She has never been heard from again and an extensive search turned up no indication of her whereabouts.
"Quillin failed a polygraph about Capps's disappearance and authorities stated they believed he knew where she was. Quillin subsequently changed his story slightly, saying Capps had had a heart attack after their car got stuck, and she disappeared when he went to get help."
Capps' maiden name was Snodgrass. Quillin died in Texas in February 1992. He was 61.
If you have information, contact the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. It's never too late.
[Photo: CBI]
A drunken driver traveling in the wrong direction on I-76 slammed head-on into several autos and fled into a field on foot - "easily disappearing in the dark," police said.
The episode occurred in Commerce City and a drone launched from police headquarters - equipped with infrared imaging - led officers to the suspect, who was arrested.
The "terrifying" incident occurred Saturday night, police said. No serious injuries were reported.
A motorist died after crashing into a tree in Denver.
The accident occurred at East Alameda Avenue and South Jasmine Street, police said Sunday.
In another incident, a pedestrian was killed by an auto in the 4600-block North Peoria Street in Denver.
A scooter rider was critically injured after colliding with a deer Sunday night in Fort Collins, police said.
The rider's injuries are considered life-threatening.
"This is an incredibly tragic case," Police Sergeant Chris Bland said.
The crash occurred in the 2000-block of Centre Avenue. The victim is a man.
"The area was searched by a drone to try and locate the deer to check on its injuries, but no injured deer was located in the area," police said.
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A suspect fleeing a home invasion was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police following an auto chase and foot pursuit in Pueblo. Two officers were wounded.
The shooting occurred Saturday night after the suspect abandoned his vehicle in the unit block of Regency Boulevard and ran to an apartment complex.
"Officers followed the suspect to an upstairs apartment and began knocking on the door, announcing themselves as police," police said. "The suspect opened the door, and an exchange of gunfire occurred."
The suspect was pronounced dead on the scene. One of the wounded officers was transported to hospital "for non-life-threatening injuries." The home invasion occurred in 1600-block of Gaylord Avenue.
