Jan 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 1

AROUND THE COUNTRY

AROUND THE COUNTRY HEROIC LAKEWOOD CO. OFFICER ENDS COLORADO SHOOTING SPREE By Jon Murray and Joe Rubino The Denver Post LAKEWOOD, Colo. — When a gunman opened fire inside a Broadway tattoo parlor Monday night, the shooting spree that would zigzag through Denver and Lakewood was just getting started. Less than an hour later, the rampage ended with his death on the streets of Lakewood’s upscale Belmar shopping district, as the final gunfight with a police officer — herself injured — shattered a pizza restaurant’s two large windows, sending shocked diners diving for cover behind overturned tables. Investigators recover evidence from a window frame outside a Xfinity store Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021, in Lakewood, Colo., one of the scenes of a shooting spree that left several people dead—including the suspected shooter Monday evening—and left a few more people wounded. “One of my pizza cooks was crawling on the ground, coming around the corner,” said Tyler Gunderson, the front-of-the-house manager for The Rock Wood-Fired Pizza on West Alaska Place, east of Wadsworth Boulevard. When it was all over, five of the victims in Monday’s shooting spree had died and another two had sustained serious injuries, including the officer, in one of the most unusual, confounding multiple-victim shoot- ings the metro area has seen. Lyndon James McLeod, 47, was identified by police as the gunman Tuesday. He was reported by a lobby security guard at one condo building in Denver to be wearing clothing that impersonated “a police officer in tactical gear with a police logo and badge and carrying a rifle,” according to an email sent Tuesday to residents of One Cheesman Place. While still investigating Tuesday, authorities publicly withheld any ideas they had about McLeod’s motives. But where he aimed his gun did not appear to be random: Among the victims were four shots inside tattoo parlors, both at the one in Denver and at other locations miles away in Lakewood. “The victims were known to the offender,” Denver Police Department Commander Matt Clark said, though in one case, he added, his targeting was based on an apparent grudge with a hotel in the Belmar district. There he shot a woman who happened to be working the front desk, just minutes before his own death. The clerk died Tuesday. Denver police received the first 911 call about violence on Broadway near First Avenue at 5:25 p.m., Clark said. They arrived at Sol Tribe Custom Tattoo and Body Piercing to find two victims inside: owner Alicia Cardenas, 44, and Alyssa Gunn Maldonado, who both died. Alyssa’s husband, Jimmy Maldonado, a piercer at Sol Tribe, was injured and had escaped onto the street, Clark said. He was in critical condition Tuesday night. All three were identified to The Post by family and friends. Within minutes, police received a report of a new crime scene — where the gunman had forced entry into a home near West Sixth Avenue and Bannock Street. A nearby van also was set on fire, he said. “He pursued the occupants through the residence, which is also a part of a business,” Clark said, but they escaped unharmed. The gunman set off again. His next target was the 19-story condo building overlooking Cheesman Park, just south of East 13th Avenue at North Williams Street. The email sent to residents of One Cheesman Place by building management outlined what building managers understood to have happened. The gunman showed up wearing the police gear and carrying the rifle, the email says, and the security guard in the lobby cooperated with his demands by escorting him to a floor of the building he requested — where the gunman “forced himself into the unit and committed the shooting.” One man was killed, police said, but his identity hasn’t been released. The security guard “escaped to another unit and called 911,” the email said. Back down in the lobby, the gunman fired his gun to exit through the secured door. On Tuesday morning, three bullet holes, labeled with evidence markers, left a pattern of web-like cracks running up one of the glass doors. Travis Leiker, the president and executive director of Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods, an advocacy group for the area, said he was in the group’s headquarters just across Williams Street on Monday night, leading an online meeting, when he heard those gunshots. By the time police arrived, the gunman was long gone, heading back west. But just minutes later, at 5:49 p.m., other Denver police officers in an unmarked car spotted the Ford A True American Hero Lakewood Police Agent Ashley Ferris Econoline van he was reported to be driving on West 13th Avenue near Interstate 25, Clark said. After an exchange of gunfire at a dead-end at West Eighth Avenue and Zuni Street, he said, the gunman escaped onto I-25 after firing shots that “disabled” the police vehicle. His next stop: Lucky 13 Tattoo and Piercing, a shop in a shopping center at Kipling Street and West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood. At 5:58 p.m., security video from the adjacent In and Out Liquor store recorded the gunman stopping his van in the drive lane, walking into the store holding what looks like a gun. He exited just 10 seconds later, driving off. In that time, he shot and killed tattoo artist Danny “Dano” Scofield, 38, according to Lakewood Police Department spokesman John Romero. The gunman drove about four miles southeast, to the Belmar shopping district. Lakewood police agents spotted his van at 6:04 p.m. near a Wells Fargo Bank branch at 14 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 15