Category Archives: Colorado

Ex-Colorado funeral home owner gets 20 year sentence for selling body parts

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Megan Hess and her mother Shirley Koch defrauded distraught families and dismembered bodies for illegal sale

A former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts without permission.

Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law.

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Two dead at Jehovah’s Witnesses center in Colorado

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Police say the shooting involved a married couple – an unidentified man fatally shot a woman before killing himself

Police in Thornton, Colorado, say they found two adults dead after investigating a suspected murder-suicide at a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall on Christmas morning.

Officers in the suburb north of Denver tweeted at 10.30am Sunday that they were investigating a homicide at the gathering place but that “there [was] no active threat”.

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US National Weather Services warns of ‘widespread’ winter storm hazards

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More than 15 million people under winter advisory while several areas in midwest and Great Plains face intense snowstorms

More than 15 million people are under a winter advisory as of Tuesday, as several areas in the midwest and Great Plains face intense snowstorms, Axios reported.

Storm warnings are in effect across a dozen states, including parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and South Dakota.

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Relative of alleged Colorado shooter warned judge of danger they posed

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California woman says shooting at gay club could have been prevented had earlier charges not been dismissed

A California woman who warned a judge last year about the danger posed by the suspect in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting said on Friday that the deaths could have been prevented if earlier charges against the suspect had not been dismissed.

Jeanie Streltzoff – a relative of alleged shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich – urged Colorado judge Robin Chittum in a letter last November to incarcerate the suspect following a 2021 standoff with Swat teams that uncovered a stockpile of more than 100 pounds (45kg) of explosive material, firearms and ammunition.

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Man who helped stop shooter at Colorado gay club ‘wanted to save family I found’

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Navy member Thomas James was one of two men who prevented gunman from doing more harm after he killed five people

A member of the US Navy who was injured while helping prevent further harm during a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado last weekend said on Sunday that he “simply wanted to save the family that I found”.

Petty officer 2nd class Thomas James made his first public comments on the shooting in a statement issued through Centura Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, where James is recovering from undisclosed injuries suffered during the attack.

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Colorado Springs shooting shows LGBTQ+ people facing ‘different kind of hate’

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Co-owner of Club Q, where five people were killed, says targeting of drag event is linked to hate fostered by lies about the community

The co-owner of the Colorado Springs gay nightclub that was the scene of a mass shooting believes the attack is a reflection of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment that has evolved from prejudice to incitement.

Authorities haven’t said why the suspect allegedly opened fired at the club on Saturday, killing five people and wounding 17 others. The suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, has not entered a plea or spoken about the incident but is facing possible hate crime charges.

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Two Colorado sheriff’s deputies indicted after roadside death of Christian Glass

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Law enforcement killed Glass, 22, after he called 911 amid what his mother called a mental health crisis

A grand jury has indicted two Colorado sheriff’s deputies in the death of a 22-year-old man who was shot after calling 911 for roadside assistance while experiencing what his mother described as a mental health crisis, according to online court records.

The indictments of the former Clear Creek county sheriff’s deputies Andrew Buen and Kyle Gould were returned on Wednesday, five months after law enforcement killed Christian Glass. The case has become a flashpoint amid a national outcry for police reforms focused on crisis intervention and de-escalation.

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‘It was flight or die’: witnesses describe horror of Colorado Springs shooting

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Patrons at Club Q flipped over tables for shelter after shots suddenly rang out across the venue

Deanne VanScyoc said she had dropped to the floor behind a pool table at Club Q and called 911 as the first shots rang out just before midnight, hitting people at the bar.

VanScyoc was facing the entrance from behind a glass wall when the shooter came in, she said. The shooter turned right and fired a single shot toward the bar, then three more in rapid succession, then a flurry of shots. As pop music pounded and a strobe light flashed, VanScyoc saw the shooter, in body armor, move in a crouch down a ramp, rifle at eye level, and head toward the dance floor.

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Colorado Springs shooting suspect to make first court appearance

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Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, scheduled to appear by video from jail over attack that left five dead and at least 17 wounded

The alleged gunman facing possible hate crime charges in the fatal shooting of five people at a Colorado Springs nightclub was scheduled to make a first court appearance on Wednesday from jail, after being released from hospital.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, who was beaten into submission by patrons at Club Q on Saturday night, was scheduled to appear by video. Motive was under investigation but authorities said Aldrich faced possible murder and hate crime charges.

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Colorado Springs shooting: suspect faces murder and hate crime charges

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Shooter faces five murder charges and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, records show

The suspect in a weekend gun attack on a LBGTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs will face five murder charges, and five additional hate crime counts of causing injury with “bias motivation”, records released on Monday afternoon show.

The details came as police updated the number of injured in the Saturday night rampage at Club Q to 18, and said the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, remained in custody at a local hospital.

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Two barmen among the dead in mass shooting at gay nightclub in Colorado

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At least three others shot dead in attack at Club Q in Colorado Springs, after which a man was arrested

Among those killed at a Colorado LGBTQ nightclub targeted by a mass shooting late Saturday were two of the establishment’s bartenders, according to community members.

Daniel Davis Aston and Derrick Rump were two of at least five people shot dead at Club Q in Colorado Springs, local LGBTQ activist Alex Clemons-Laput said. Other media outlets reported Aston and Rump were among those slain at the club.

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At least five people killed in shooting at gay nightclub in Colorado Springs

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At least 25 people were also injured in attack at Club Q, and suspect in custody after patrons confronted and subdued him, police say

At least five people were killed and another 25 were injured in a shooting late Saturday at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.

The suspected shooter, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, is in custody, the chief of the Colorado Spring Police Department, Adrian Vasquez, said at a news conference Sunday morning.

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Marijuana, abortion, climate crisis: what was down the ballot in the midterm

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The ‘green wave’ expanded to Maryland with voters opting for recreational cannabis while California voted to enshrine abortion

Voters across the US weighed in on a variety of ballot measures during the US midterms on Tuesday, passing judgement on everything from recreational drugs to abortion rights, to sports betting and the climate crisis.

Multiple states voted on whether or not to legalize recreational marijuana, part of a growing “green wave” that has already seen many relax their laws on cannabis use.

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Boebert tells Republican dinner guests they’re part of ‘second coming of Jesus’

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Colorado representative told Tennessee members ‘there is a calling’ and that ‘it is an honor to serve in this time’

Republican Colorado representative Lauren Boebert has told a group of party members that they “get to be part of ushering in the second coming of Jesus”, prompting shock and mockery online.

At a dinner hosted by Knox county Republican party in Tennessee on Wednesday, Boebert addressed the guests by saying, “I want to start with two words: ‘Let’s go Brandon’” referring to a vulgar anti-Joe Biden slogan before adding, “In all seriousness, there is a calling on each and every one of you to be involved and to rise up.

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Video shows train hitting Colorado police car with person handcuffed inside

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Yareni Rios-Gonzales hospitalized after officers fail to pull her from car they had parked on tracks

A dramatic video released by Colorado authorities shows the moment a freight train hit a police patrol cruiser parked on the train tracks with a person handcuffed in the backseat.

The video, which was released on Friday by the Platteville and Fort Lupton police departments, shows how Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, 20, was hurt after officers from both agencies detained her in a patrol car on 16 September as they searched her pickup truck for weapons.

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Colorado Republican turns Democrat over ‘existential threat’ from GOP

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In letter announcing defection, state senator Kevin Priola cites political and environmental threat from his erstwhile party

Announcing his switch to the Democrats, a Colorado state senator said Republican attacks on democracy were not the only “existential threat” posed by his former party.

“I have become increasingly worried about our planet and the climate crisis we are facing,” Kevin Priola said, in a letter posted to social media on Monday.

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US issues western water cuts as drought leaves Colorado River near ‘tipping point’

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Arizona, Nevada and Mexico affected as federal government steps in after states failed to reach agreement

After western US states failed to reach agreements to reduce water use from the beleaguered Colorado River, the federal government stepped in on Tuesday, issuing cuts that will affect two states and Mexico.

Officials with the Bureau of Reclamation declared a “tier 2” shortage in the river basin as the drought continues to pummel the American west, pushing its largest reservoirs to new lows. The waning water levels, which have left dramatic bathtub rings in reservoirs and unearthed buried bodies and other artifacts, continue to threaten hydroelectric power production, drinking water, and agricultural production.

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‘You’re the coolest kid’: Paul Rudd writes letter to bullied schoolboy

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Ant-Man actor befriends Brody Ridder of Colorado, whose classmates refused to sign his yearbook

The actor Paul Rudd has sent a handwritten letter to a 12-year-old boy after he received just two signatures from fellow students in his school yearbook.

The pair also spoke on FaceTime after Brody Ridder, from Colorado, came home from school with the yearbook.

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‘They don’t care about us’: US Starbucks workers allege they were fired for union activity

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Nine Colorado employees claim their dismissals came after an organizing campaign in response to safety concerns and pay problems

Nine Starbucks workers at three stores in Denver, Colorado, who were fired shortly after their stores voted to unionize allege they were dismissed in retaliation for union organizing at the American coffee chain giant.

The firings are among a few dozen cases around the US where workers have alleged they have been fired from the coffee retail chain during a union organizing campaign at their store. More than 180 Starbucks corporate retail stores in the US have voted to unionize, and more than 300 have filed for union elections.

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