4 Dead in Colorado Springs Shooting

[decemberwedding07]

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/four-dead-after-colorado-shooting-spree-including-suspect

[ttt]

Add sidewalks and public streets to the list of places nobody is safe. Or wait, were those already on the list? They probably were.

[AJL]

But of course guns aren't the problem at all. /sarcasm

[darnkatz]

I feel bitter and angry.

[Aquatica]

This is so sad, I feel for these families.

[downtoearth]

A boy on a bicycle?!? I'm so, so sad about this. This is a big military area, I hope it wasn't a vet on the shooting spree.

[sparrowsong]

The coverage, or lack of coverage, on this has been so strange. It's not even a big story here in Colorado. Yesterday the story I saw first reported one dead. Now it's four? It's not even on the front page of the local channel I use. This guy just walked down the street and randomly killed total strangers he passed? Wtf? What is going on here? This isn't as frightening as someone taking a gun to a movie theater? I don't get it!

[aurora]

So sad.

[litebright]

It's on the Post's front page today and was on the front of one of the Sunday sections yesterday -- it's not being ignored.

And man, a neighbor saw him walking around outside with a gun prior to the shooting and called police, but apparently was told it's legal to carry a gun around in public in CO.

This was just updated: www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29059452/colorado-springs-police-confronted-shot-gunman-minutes

The family of the 33-year-old man who killed three people in a Colorado Springs shooting rampage Saturday issued a statement Monday expressing remorse and sympathy for the victims.

"Our family is shocked and deeply saddened by the devastating events that took place in Colorado Springs on Saturday morning," the statement from Noah Harpham's family, first reported by The Gazette, read. "Words cannot express our heartfelt sympathies that go out to the families and friends of the victims."

The Rev. Benjamin Broadbent, who released the family's remarks, confirmed the authenticity of the statement to The Denver Post. Broadbent serves as the lead minister at First Congregational Church and led a candlelight prayer vigil Sunday night for victims of the rampage.

Both the Associated Press and The Gazette have reported Harpham is the shooter.

"We ask for privacy as our family tries to deal with this tragedy," the Harpham family's statement, from the gunman's father and brother, went on.

Colorado Springs police and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office have yet to formally identify the gunman or the three people killed in the shooting. Police say they are withholding the identities pending completion of autopsies and identification of next of kin.

Autopsies on the four began at 8 a.m. on Monday.

Minutes after the shooting began Saturday, police rushed to confront the killer in the middle of a busy intersection just east of downtown, dispatch archives show.
Near East Platte and Wahsatch avenues, officers found their suspect — a tall, curly-haired man clad in a black hat and green jacket — and a battle ensued.

"Shots fired! My cruiser is shot at!" an officer hollered over his radio, according to archives captures on Broadcastify.com.

At 9:01 a.m., about seven minutes after police were first dispatched to the area, the gunman was in custody. He later died.

"We do have the suspect shot," the same officer said.

As emergency responders began tending to the suspect, investigators began finding the carnage the killer had left in his path over several blocks — a bicyclist slain in broad daylight and two women found gunned down together.
"This is a headshot," an officer told dispatch of what he found at one of the scenes.

"This whole area is a crime scene," another said over his radio.

A motive has not been revealed.

"It would be way too early to speak to that," Lt. Catherine Buckley, a police spokeswoman, said Monday.

Officers were first called on reports of a "possible shooting" at 230 North Prospect Street — a townhouse-like building — where they found the bicyclist dead and a fire burning, the dispatch archives show.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office will investigate the officer-involved shooting and once completed, that investigation will be turned over to the county's district attorney for review. The officers involved in shooting the suspect have been placed on administrative leave per department policy.

Police say they are not searching for any further suspects.

Witnesses watched in horror as the killer picked his victims off. One of them, the bicyclist, pleaded for his life before being killed.

"I heard the (young man) say, 'Don't shoot me! Don't shoot me!' " Naomi Bettis, a neighbor who witnessed the killing, said Monday.

Bettis said she recognized the gunman as her neighbor — whom she didn't know by name — and that before the initial slaying she saw him roaming outside with a rifle. She called 911 to report the man, but a dispatcher explained that Colorado has an open carry law that allows public handling of firearms.

"He did have a distraught look on his face," Bettis said. "It looked like he had a rough couple days or so."

After the gunman shot the bicyclist, Bettis said she watched him walk towards Platte Avenue. She then heard more gunfire.

Matt Abshire, who lives in the area, told The Gazette he followed the killer westbound on East Platte Avenue.

While on the phone with police, Abshire said he saw the shooter turn and shoot at two women. By the time Abshire reached the two women, one of them had stopped breathing, he told newspaper.

"She was dead," Abshire said.

It appeared one of the woman had been shot in the face, he said.

The women were living in a sober living home as part of a substance recovery program in Colorado Springs called the Alano House, the organization says.

Family and friends have identified the two victims as Jennifer Vasquez and Christy Galella, both mothers, according to crowdfunding sites set up to raise money in their names. The Alano House on Monday confirmed the legitimacy of those sites.

"She was a mom, daughter, sister, cousin and neice," Galella's aunt, Rita Nicholas, posted on one of the sites. "Her children are young and don't understand why their mom was taken."

Other residents who lived in the home were displaced in the killings' wake.

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, in a statement released Monday, called the shootings a tragedy that led to the death of "three innocent victims."

"On behalf of all the citizens of Colorado Springs, I want to convey our heartfelt sympathies to the families and friends of the victims of this crime," he said.

[ttt]

Jesus. So senseless. These killings just never stop.

[penguingrrl]

How tragic. And it's amazing how little we have heard about this shooting. I guess we really have become desensitized to gun violence in this country.

[ttt]

Nov 2, 2015 17:17:43 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

How tragic. And it's amazing how little we have heard about this shooting. I guess we really have become immune to gun violence in this country.

And since he only killed three people, it doesn't even technically qualify as a "mass shooting."

[penguingrrl]

Nov 2, 2015 17:19:42 GMT -5 ttt said:

Nov 2, 2015 17:17:43 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

How tragic. And it's amazing how little we have heard about this shooting. I guess we really have become immune to gun violence in this country.

And since he only killed three people, it doesn't even technically qualify as a "mass shooting."

I hate that we are aware of that distinction. The deaths of three innocent people at the hands of a stranger with a gun should be shocking and tragic. We should consider that a mass shooting as it should be that unusual. And yet here we are.