Colorado Springs homicide investigators look for answers after deadliest year ever

Colorado Springs homicide investigators look for answers after deadliest year ever
POSTED: 01/29/2012
By Sara Burnett
The Denver Post

COLORADO SPRINGS — The night was quickly going south.

Just after 8 p.m., a 60-year-old parolee had shot two people — killing one — in an AutoZone parking lot. Less than 20 minutes later, officers on a domestic-violence call shot a 21-year-old who threatened to kill his girlfriend and then pointed a gun at them.

Lt. Kirk Wilson, the man in charge of the Colorado Springs Police Department's homicide unit, was en route to that second shooting when the worst call of the night came in: Three teenagers, two of them brothers, had been shot, apparently victims of road rage.

Two of the young men already were dead. The third would be pronounced dead a short time later, making July 27, 2011, the deadliest night in what would turn out to be the deadliest year in Colorado Springs history.

There were 32 homicides here last year — a 33 percent increase over 2010 and four more than the previous record, set in 2007.

The other major cause for alarm were the deaths of seven children, all 2 years or younger. In each case, police arrested a parent or caregiver.

"We had way too many of those," said 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May, whose district includes Colorado Springs.

Many of those cases involved families with ties to Fort Carson, May said. And most were not families that had prior contact with county human services.

"I think a lot of these are parents who couldn't believe they did this — who never would have seen themselves doing something like this, except for in that one moment," May said.

El Paso County Commissioner Sallie Clark, a military wife, said many military families face the added stress of deployment or the return of a service member. Because of the transient nature of the population, they may not have the support system they need.
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