One Douglas County deputy died and four more were wounded along with two civilians Sunday morning at a Highlands Ranch apartment complex. The shooter was also shot and is believed dead, the Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet at 9:32 a.m.
The Sheriff’s Office announced at 10:02 a.m. that the slain officer would soon be moved from Littleton Adventist Hospital in a procession. “Expect heavy law enforcement presence and traffic congestion on Broadway, C470 and SB I-25,” the Sheriffs Office tweeted.
Deputies were responding to a domestic disturbance call when shots were fired from the home in the 3400 block of County Line Road near Colorado Boulevard before 6 a.m., Lauren Lekander, DCSO spokeswoman said.
Denver 7 reported hearing shots fired as a reporter later arrived at the scene.
“We have SWAT out there setting up and preparing to go in right now,” Lekander said at about 7:15 a.m.
Early during the incident, the Sheriff’s Office said only that a number of officers were shot. “We have multiple officers down,” said Deputy Jason Blanchard of the incident at Copper Canyon Apartments in Highlands Ranch.
“We are not giving numbers or status at this point, we are still working on getting the suspect in custody.”
Residents were told to stay inside and avoid windows and exterior walls.
Steven Silknitter lives in the complex.
He was working elsewhere when he heard about the shooting. He called home waking up his fiance.
She woke to hear “a barrage” of gunfire in the dark, said Silknitter.
“She was pretty scared. She kept saying how loud it was.”
Silknitter lived in Aurora during the 2014 Aurora Theater shooting. “Where do you move to? It’s everywhere.”
Three of the injured were taken to Skyridge Medical Center in Lone Tree with non-critical injuries, said Linda Watson, a hospital spokeswoman. She couldn’t say if the injured were officers. Another four have been taken to Littleton Adventist Hospital, said Alyssa Parker, a hospital spokeswoman.
Parker couldn’t say how serious their injuries are.
Due to the size of the investigation an emergency shelter was set up at East Ridge Recreation Center, located at 9568 University Blvd. in Highlands Ranch. Anyone who has been displaced can go there, the Sheriff’s Department said.
Multiple law enforcement vehicles, Douglas County Sheriff, South Metro and Littleton fire rescue vehicles came and went from the scene.
“There is still a lot of activity out here,” Larry Ryckman, Denver Post editor at the scene, said at 9:30 a.m.
Video broadcast by Denver 7 showed an Arapahoe County Sheriff Bomb Squad truck at the scene.
In a Code Red the Sheriff’s office told residents to shelter in place, avoid windows and stay away from exterior walls.
An investigation is in progress and most of County Line Road is closed down from Colorado Boulevard to University Boulevard. C-470 is closed from Quebec Street to University Boulevard.
Parker Police Department, Lone Tree Police, Castle Rock Police and Colorado State Patrol are involved in the incident.
Procession for the deceased officer will take place soon from @LittletonHosp. Expect heavy law enforcement presence and traffic congestion on Broadway, C470 and SB I-25 #CopperCanyonOIS
**Copper Canyon OIS Update**- Deputies responded to a domestic disturbance resulting in shots fired. 5 deputies shot by suspect. 1 deputy confirmed deceased. 2 civilians also shot by suspect. Suspect shot & believed to be dead & no longer a threat. #CopperCanyonOIS
Due to the size and cope of this investigation an emergency shelter has been set up @ East Ridge Rec Center, located at 9568 University Blvd. in Highlands Ranch. If anyone has been displaced from their homes due to this event please feel free to head there.
UPDATE 0513 this morning deputies responded to he Copper Canyon Apartments for a Domestic Disturbance. During the Investigation, shots were fired and multiple deputies were injured. No status on the deputies and no status on civilian injuries. Please avoid this area.
Due to this incident, the following agencies are on accident alert. Douglas County, Parker Police Department, Lone Tree Police Department, Castle Rock Police Department and Colorado State Patrol.
A Code Red was sent out regarding this incident. Any citizens in the affected area are instructed to shelter in place, avoid windows and stay away from exterior walls.
DCSO is working an officer down call in the area of County Line Rd between Colorado Blvd and University Blvd. This is an active event, please avoid the area.
Richland County deputies are investigating an incident where one person was shot and later died.
Deputies say they were called to the McDonald’s located at 7011 Parklane Road around 4 a.m. following an argument that led to a person being shot outside in the restaurant’s parking lot.
The victim, identified as James K. Copeland III, 30, of Cumming, GA, was taken to Palmetto Health Richland in critical condition but later died.
Detectives say Sultan Battle was the man who shot Copeland, but the sheriff’s department and the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office ruled the incident a justifiable homicide.
Battle has been charged with kidnapping and armed robbery for the moments leading up to the shooting. Detectives say Battle met a woman at the Quality Inn at 8140 Two Notch Road with the intent to have sex with and rob her. Battle stole cash and a cell phone from the victim and ran away.
The victim called an acquaintance and they tracked the phone down to the McDonald’s on Parklane Road. The victim’s friend demanded the stolen items back from Sultan and pulled a gun on him. Sultan pointed a gun at him in return and shot him.
Battle is booked to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center where he will await a bond hearing.
In a surprising verdict, the jury of six men and six women deliberated and came back with a not guilty verdict, acquitting defendant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate. He was facing second degree murder charges for killing 32-year-old Pleasanton resident Kate Steinle on July 1, 2015, at Pier 14 in San Francisco.
The case gained notoriety because Garcia Zarate is an undocumented immigrant who had been deported several times and had a number of felony convictions.
Steinle’s death became part of the immigration debate in this country, with then-candidate Donald Trump criticizing San Francisco for its sanctuary city status during his campaign.
The Steinle family has been waiting more than two years for this day. Kate Steinle was shot and killed when she was walking with her father and a friend on the pier.
Garcia Zarate, who was homeless at the time, claimed he found the gun wrapped in a piece of cloth under a swivel chair at the pier. He says he picked it up, and it accidentally fired, hitting Steinle in the back. The bullet, the defense claimed, ricocheted and then traveled 78 feet before striking Steinle.
The prosecution has always maintained that Garcia Zarate had the gun all along, aimed it at Steinle and fired. But, because, he had little experience with guns, the bullet ricocheted first, a common mistake made by amateurs.
The gun used to shoot Steinle was stolen in San Francisco from the personal vehicle of a federal park ranger four days earlier. The agent works for the Bureau of Land Management, which is being sued by the Steinle family.
A number of witnesses testified in the trial, including police officers and several people who saw Garcia Zarate at the scene, along with several CSI investigators and forensic experts.
The trial began on Oct. 23, 2017.
The jury had a number of choices to make. They could have gone with a second degree verdict, involuntary manslaughter or consider a first degree murder verdict.
Son Mutilated Dad, Posted Selfies After Murder: Prosecutors
CHICAGO (CBS) — Just days after he was served with a court order barring him from coming near his father, Cook County prosecutors said murdered the 61-year-old and mutilated the body in the basement of the older man’s West Pullman home.
He then allegedly posted several selfies on Facebook, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
Led into court in shackles and white, jail-issued coveralls, the 26-year-old Edmondson muttered and ranted during a bond hearing Tuesday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.
When Assistant State’s Attorney Julia Ramirez said that Edmondson was facing a single count of first-degree murder, in addition to pending charges for violating the order of protection taken out by his father on Nov. 20, Edmondson shouted.
“The order of protection is gone,” he said, smiling. “He is no longer living.”
Edmondson laughed softly to himself as Ramirez described how Carl Edmondson’s body was found Saturday at the bottom of the basement stairs of his home in the 11500 block of South Bishop – the skull crushed and blood and brain matter splattered on the floor and walls.
Carlton Edmondson | Chicago Police
Carlton Edmondson shook his head and seemed to chuckle when Ramirez added that Carl Edmondson’s penis had been cut off.
The outbursts prompted Judge Stephanie Miller to order Carlton Edmondson out of the courtroom even before she ruled that he be held without bond.
Police went to the elder Edmondson’s house on the weekend after Carlton Edmondson’s uncle reported that he had stopped by and seen Carlton Edmondson inside the house, and knew that he not supposed to be there.
Carlton Edmondson answered the door when police arrived, and when asked the whereabouts of his father, said the older man was “at the hospital,” Ramirez said.
Police took Carlton Edmondson into custody, and found the body beside a Bowie knife, circular saw, and a “concrete capstone,” Ramirez said. The body smelled of gasoline, and a gas can lay nearby, Ramirez said. Inside the house, investigators found a black jacket that appeared to be the one Carlton Edmondson was wearing in pictures he posted to Facebook on Saturday.
In the photos, Carlton Edmondson holds a cigarette and grins at the camera, with what looks like blood spatter against the white logos on the jacket.
Using the odd punctuation and spelling Carlton Edmondson used for most of his posts, one photo is captioned “EyEm OAWn mA pEriOd #beebop #silenceofthelambs #gdshit #chevezwhatupfolkz.” A post from around 7 a.m. reads “EyE sIlEnCed thE LahmeDs.”
Edmondson’s Facebook profile lists his profession as “singer/songwriter.”
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office ruled that the elder Edmondson died of multiple injuries from assault.
Five days earlier, Carlton Edmondson was arrested for throwing a brick through the window of his father’s house, and was released on a recognizance bond from the police station.
Court records indicate Carlton Edmondson had been arrested six times since September on a variety of misdemeanor charges, including refusing to give his name to police officers who saw him drinking on a street corner; stealing a pair of $16 sunglasses from a South Side Target and snatching a 70-year-old woman’s cell phone as she bought lottery tickets at a convenience store.
In 2015, he was arrested for flashing his penis at police officers in the Loop, and also for refusing to leave a downtown 7-Eleven store.
Carlton Edmondson’s father’s first sought an order of protection from his son in August. He subsequently made another request for the order in October.
The order of protection barred Carlton Edmondson from having contact with his father or coming to his house. The younger Edmondson was served with a copy of the order when he was arrested, Ramirez said.
“Not guilty!” Carlton Edmondson yelled. “It wasn’t me. It wasn’t his jacket.”
Assistant Public Defender Kevin Ochalla told Miller that Carlton Edmondson was a graduate of Morgan Park High School and had attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
When Ochalla asked that Carlton Edmondson be evaluated at the jail hospital, he shouted again.
“He got my death-body, G!” he said, pointing a finger at Ochalla. “I’ma kill him.”
What Idiot Thinks That It Is A Good Idea For Only The Criminal To Have Guns
The United Kingdom’s National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) is conducting a new gun surrender program from Nov. 13 to Nov. 26 after gun crime in England and Wales increased by more than a quarter in the past year.
The Office for National Statistics found a 27 percent increase in crimes involving firearms during its most recent review of crime data. Despite a near ban on the civilian ownership of handguns the review found crimes committed with handguns increased by 25 percent and accounted for the majority of gun crimes. The agency said the increases in 2016 were part of a multiyear trend.
“The latest rise continues an upward trend seen in firearms offences in the last few years, however, offences are still 31 percent below a decade ago,” the most recent annual report from the agency said. “Over the last year, over two-thirds (32 of the 439) of police forces recorded a rise in offences involving firearms.”
NABIS cited the statistics as part of the reason it decided to undertake a new gun surrender program this month.
“Police forces across the U.K. are appealing for people to hand over any unwanted guns with a two week surrender of firearms and ammunition, starting on Monday 13 November 2017,” a release from NABIS said. “It has been three years since the last national firearms surrender, when forces again asked members of the public to surrender unlawfully held or unwanted guns and ammunition to prevent them from getting into criminal hands.”
Detective Chief Superintendent Jo Chilton, the head of NABIS, said the mandatory gun surrender program is intended to protect the public.
“Surrendering unwanted or illegal firearms avoids the risk of them becoming involved in crime and means that members of the community can dispose of them in a safe place,” he said. “During the campaign this November you can contact your local force and hand in any unwanted or illegal firearms. This way you can be confident you have got rid of a firearm safely.”
Though illegal possession of a firearm in the U.K. can carry a prison sentence of five years and possession with intent to supply can carry a life sentence, those who turn in firearms during the gun surrender program won’t be prosecuted. The last gun surrender program in 2014 garnered more than 6,000 items despite coming decades after the U.K.’s first series of gun bans were passed into law.
David Jamieson, the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands area, urged citizens to turn over their guns and their family members’ guns to the government.
“In common with PCCs across the country I am pleased to be supporting the national firearms surrender,” he said. “I would urge people to hand in their guns. Any firearm in the wrong hands can have a devastating impact. It is no exaggeration to say that each gun we retrieve has the potential to save a life. If you or a family member possess an illegal or unwanted firearm please hand it in to the police. It might just be the best decision you ever make. Destroying these firearms will make us all safer.”
The National Rifle Association criticized the efforts of the U.K. government to curb gun crime through gun bans and mandatory gun surrender programs as ineffective.
“Anti-gun advocates like Gun Control Network Chair Gillian Marshall-Andrews tout the United Kingdom’s longstanding firearms restrictions, which include a near total ban on handguns, as the ‘gold standard’ of gun control,” the NRA wrote on its Institute for Legislative Action website. “In recent years, U.K. officials have continued to implement new policies that further burden law abiding gun owners. These include surprise inspections of gun owners’ firearm storage arrangements, the use of centralized firearm owner licensing data to target ‘terrorists,’ and intrusive medical monitoring of firearm certificate holders.
(NEWSER) – An unimaginable story out of Florida, where a 31-year-old man is accused of fatally beating his girlfriend’s 17-month-old son—then stealing her belongings and pawning them off while she was at the hospital with the dying toddler. David Earl Vickers called 911 on Aug. 21 to report the boy, Luca Sholey, was unresponsive and not breathing, the Miami Herald reports. After two days in the hospital, Luca was declared brain-dead from “injuries … consistent with child abuse,” per a police statement cited by People; he died Aug. 25 as a result of blunt trauma to his brain and asphyxia. He also had bruises on his chest and six broken ribs. On Aug. 27, Luca’s mother reported her car stereo and laptop were missing, and she told police she “found out that he [Vickers] had pawned the car stereo, so she suspected that the laptop was pawned as well,” a police detective tells People.
Police recovered the stolen items. They say Vickers took the stereo on Aug. 21, before Luca went to the hospital, and pawned it for $30, and that he took the laptop and charger when Luca’s mom was at the hospital with the toddler and pawned them for $60. Vickers was charged with crimes related to the alleged thefts on Aug. 30. After an investigation in which they found Vickers had allegedly physically abused Luca on several occasions before his death, police arrested him Thursday and charged him with second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. He’d been watching Luca and his 3-year-old sister on the day Luca was fatally injured, and he told police Luca had been knocked down the stairs by an older sibling, ABC Action News reports. Vickers had just been released from prison in May after serving nearly three years for trafficking in stolen property and defrauding a pawnbroker.
DC Sheriff
Larry Ryckman
