A second day of powerful, gusty winds hit the Front Range and Eastern Plains on Wednesday, fueling at least two wildfires in metro Denver and northeastern Colorado and snarling travel at Denver International Airport.
More than 100 firefighters from across the metro area responded to a grass fire that sparked at 11:30 a.m. near Pinnacle Charter High School, 8412 Huron St. in Thornton.
The fire burned across 10 acres of dry, grassy fields and charred vehicles as it produced billows of black smoke visible across the Denver area. Smoke reduced visibility on Interstate 25 to the point that state transportation officials closed the highway in both directions for more than an hour.
Four firefighters and one other person were injured by the fire, Thornton Fire Chief Stephen Kelley said at a briefing at City Hall. Their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, but no further information on the nature or severity of the injuries was available, Kelley said.
Police officers went door to door Wednesday afternoon to evacuate people after the fire started, and city officials sent out evacuation notices through the statewide Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, Kelley said. Pinnacle Charter High School and several nearby businesses also were evacuated.
Thornton is in the process of switching to a different city emergency alert system and does not have one in place currently, Kelley said.
City leaders could not say how many homes were evacuated and did not provide a map of affected neighborhoods, although officials confirmed most evacuations occurred northeast of the fire.
Flames burned for more than two hours before fire crews gained full containment at 2:07 p.m. Thornton officials lifted evacuations at 3:30 p.m. Kelley said firefighters were to remain in the area overnight to put out hot spots and prevent the fire from rekindling. Continued road closures were likely because of firefighting activity, he said.
No homes were destroyed by the fire, which started on a greenbelt between a residential neighborhood and businesses, Kelley said. The cause of the fire is under investigation and crews are evaluating fire damage to businesses. Although none of the businesses’ buildings appear to be damaged, rows of cars in nearby lots were burned.
“It is our intent to get ahead of these fires so we don’t have the spread … experienced during the Marshall fire,” Kelley said. “I think we’re very fortunate today that we did not have an outcome similar.”
A firefighter rakes smoldering wood chips in an outdoor exercise area where the Huron Fire burned on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, near West 84th Avenue and Huron Street in Thornton, Colo. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
High winds fueled the fire’s “rapid spread” as most of the Front Range and Eastern Plains remained under a red flag warning, Kelley said.
“These are conditions that we continue to face on a daily basis here on the Front Range,” he said.
Grass fire that sparked near Pinnacle Charter High School, 8412 Huron Street in Thornton, on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. The fire prompted evacuations at the high school and nearby businesses and closed lanes of Interstate 25. (Courtesy of Thornton Fire Department via X.com)
More than 3,000 Xcel Energy customers lost power because of the fire on Wednesday afternoon, but most outages were resolved by the evening, according to the utility’s outage map.
A grass fire burning near 84th Avenue and Huron Street in Thornton forced evacuations of Pinnacle Charter High School and nearby businesses on Feb. 25, 2026. (Courtesy of the Thornton Police Department)
A second wildfire charred at least an estimated 3,500 acres of grassland in Logan County on Wednesday afternoon, threatening the small town of Padroni and forcing the population of about two dozen residents to evacuate.
The fire was started by a crash on Colorado 113 near Logan County Road 66 at 1:20 p.m. and spread quickly as wind gusts reached 50 mph, emergency officials said.
Logan County officials ordered evacuations between County Road 66 south to Colorado 138 and Colorado 113 east to County Road 65, including Padroni, Peetz, Iliff and the Caliche School.
Fire crews gained 80% containment as of 4:26 p.m., allowing county officials to lift evacuation orders, emergency management officials said on Facebook.
State and local agencies responded to fight the fire, including two air tankers and several farmers with tractors. No damage to structures or injuries to people or livestock was reported, Logan County officials said.
Wind-related problems extended to the skies Wednesday, when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a ground delay at Denver International Airport because of the weather, delaying nearly 900 flights as gusts peaked at 55 mph.
United Airlines reported 316 delays and four cancellations as of Wednesday night. Southwest had 254 delays, and SkyWest had 218 delays and one canceled flight, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
High winds may continue to plague Colorado through Friday, although forecasters are not confident about what the next few days will bring, National Weather Service officials said Wednesday night.
Uncertain wind conditions and borderline low humidity levels are enough for forecasters to continue a fire weather watch for communities along the I-25 corridor and the Eastern Plains, forecasters wrote.
A watch means conditions are “favorable for rapid fire spread,” and people should avoid outdoor burning or any activity that produces a spark, according to the agency.
A man who shot two women in an Aurora apartment in 2024, killing one of them, was convicted this month of murder, according to court records.
Kelynn Lewis, 34, was arrested and charged in February 2024 with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, witness tampering and four counts of child abuse in Adams County District Court.
On Feb. 13, after a five-day trial, an Adams County jury convicted Lewis on lesser charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder, court records show.
Lewis was also convicted on all four counts of child abuse and of tampering with a witness, according to a copy of the jury verdict sheet.
Aurora police officers responded to reports of a shooting inside an apartment in the 1700 block of Paris Street, near the University of Colorado Hospital, at about 8:20 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2024.
The person who called 911 told dispatchers that a woman, identified by police as 35-year-old Vatrice Lashae Little, had been shot in the face by a man, according to Lewis’ arrest affidavit. Little was taken to the hospital, where she was declared dead.
Little was inside her cousin’s apartment on Paris Street when Lewis, the cousin’s ex-husband, entered with a gun, police wrote in the affidavit.
Lewis shot at his ex-wife, who played dead, and fired an additional four to five rounds when Little moved in front of her cousin’s body to intervene, according to the document. Four children were inside the apartment at the time of the shooting but were not injured.
Earlier that day, the cousin had called Lewis to tell him that he was not the biological father of her youngest child, police said.
Lewis will next appear in court on May 15 for a sentencing hearing, according to court records.
Commerce City police are investigating a suspected homicide after a woman was found dead on a sidewalk early Thursday morning, according to the department.
The 23-year-old woman’s body was found at about 4:30 a.m. Thursday in the 6200 block of Glencoe Street, near U.S. 6, according to the Commerce City Police Department.
The woman, who has not been publicly identified, had head trauma, police said. No suspects had been identified or arrested as of Thursday morning.
The investigation is ongoing, and people are asked to avoid the area, police said.
One person died overnight after flames consumed a house in northwest Aurora on Wednesday, according to the fire department.
Aurora Fire Rescue responded to the house fire in the city’s Sable Altura Chambers neighborhood, near East 22nd Avenue and Altura Boulevard, at 2:04 p.m. Wednesday.
The flames were under control by 2:19 p.m., according to a news release from the fire department.
One victim, an unidentified adult, was rescued from the house and taken to the hospital with critical injuries, where the victim later died, Aurora Fire Rescue officials confirmed in a Thursday morning update. No other injuries were reported.
Photos posted by the fire department showed a charred home with flames licking the inside, and smoke wafting through the air around firefighters.
Five people living in the single-story building were displaced, fire officials said in the release.
The victim will be identified by the Adams County Coroner’s Office.
Information about the cause of the fire was not yet available on Thursday.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Aurora firefighters respond to a fatal house fire near East 22nd Avenue and Altura Boulevard on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (Photo provided by Aurora Fire Rescue)
A 4-year-old boy was found safe after he was abducted from his home in Commerce City on Friday afternoon, police officials said.
Jeremy Chavez, 45, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, burglary, child abuse, vehicular eluding, reckless endangerment and motor vehicle theft, according to the Commerce City Police Department.
Agency officials announced Chavez’s arrest early Saturday morning, about 11 hours after issuing an Amber Alert for a 4-year-old who was “forcibly removed” from his home by Chavez.
Chavez was believed to be in a stolen black Chevrolet Silverado with the boy, and police confirmed they were trying to contact him at a house in the 17000 block of East 97th Circle at around 7:30 p.m.
There are just 16 Flock Safety cameras in Thornton.
But those electronic eyes, mounted to poles at intersections throughout this city of nearly 150,000, brought out dozens of people to the Thornton Community Center for a discussion on how the controversial license plate-reading cameras are being used — and whether they should be used at all.
Law enforcement agencies cite the automatic license-plate readers, or ALPRs, as a powerful tool that bolsters their ability to locate and stop suspects who may be on their way to committing their next assault or robbery.
But Meg Moore, a six-year resident of the city who is helping spearhead opposition to Flock cameras, said she worries about how the rapidly spreading surveillance system is impacting residents’ privacy and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Thornton’s Flock camera data can be seen by more than 1,600 other law enforcement agencies across the country.
“We want to make sure this is truly safe and effective,” she said in an interview.
The debate over Atlanta-based Flock Safety’s cameras, which not only can record license plate numbers but can search for the specific characteristics of a vehicle linked to an alleged crime, has been picking up steam in recent years. The discussions have largely played out in metro Denver and Front Range cities in recent months, but this year they reached the state Capitol, where lawmakers are pitching a couple of bills to tighten up rules around surveillance.
In Denver, Mayor Mike Johnston has been butting heads with the City Council over the issue. Johnston is so convinced of Flock’s value in combating crime that in October, he extended the contract with the company against the wishes of much of the council. Denver has 111 Flock cameras.
In Longmont, elected leaders took a different approach. Its City Council voted in December to pause all sharing of Flock Safety data with other municipalities, declined an expansion of its contract with the company and began searching for an alternative.
Louisville beat its Boulder County neighbor to the punch by several months, disabling its Flock cameras at the end of June and removing them by the start of October. City spokesman Derek Cosson said privacy concerns from residents largely drove the city’s decision.
Steve Mathias, a Thornton resident for nearly a decade, would like to see Flock’s cameras gone from his city. Short of that, he said, reliable controls on how the streetside data is collected, stored and shared are paramount.
“In our rush to make our community safe, we’re not getting the full picture of the risks we’re facing,” he said. “We’re making ourselves safe in some ways by making ourselves less safe in others.”
The hot-button debate in Thornton played out at last month’s community meeting and continued at a City Council meeting last week, where the city’s Police Department gave a presentation on the Flock system.
Cmdr. Chad Parker laid out several examples of Flock’s cameras being instrumental in apprehending bad actors — in cases ranging from homicide to sex assault to child exploitation to a $5,700 theft at a Nike store.
As recently as Monday, Thornton police announced on X that investigators had tracked down a man suspected of hitting and killing a 14-year-old boy who was riding a small motorized bike over the weekend. The agency said a Flock camera in Thornton gave officers a “strong lead” in identifying the hit-and-run suspect within 24 hours.
At the Feb. 3 council study session, police Chief Jim Baird described Flock’s camera system as “one of the best tools I’ve seen in 32 years of law enforcement.”
But that doesn’t sway those in Thornton who are wary of the camera network.
“I’m not a fan of building toward a surveillance state,” Mathias said.
The hazards of a system like Flock, he said, lie not just in the pervasive data-collection methods the company uses but also in who eventually might get to see and use that data — be it a rogue law enforcement officer or a hacker who manages to break into Flock’s database.
“A person who wants us to do us harm with this system will have as much capability as the police have to do good,” he said.
A Flock Safety license plate recognition camera is seen on a street light post on Ken Pratt Boulevard near the intersection with U.S. 287 in Longmont on Dec. 10, 2025. (Matthew Jonas/Daily Camera)
Crime-fighting tool or prone to misuse?
In November, a Columbine Valley police officer was disciplined after he accused a Denver woman of theft based in large part on evidence from Flock cameras, according to reporting from Fox31. The officer mistakenly claimed the woman had stolen a $25 package in a nearby town and said he’d used Flock cameras to track her car.
“It’s putting too much trust in the hands of people who don’t know what they’re doing,” DeFlock’s Will Freeman said of so many police agencies’ adoption of the technology.
Last summer, 9News reported that the Loveland Police Department had shared access to its Flock camera system with U.S. Border Patrol. That came two months after the station reported that the department gave the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives access to its account, which ATF agents then used to conduct searches for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Parker, the Thornton police commander, said any searches connected to immigration cases or to women from out of state who are seeking an abortion in Colorado — another scenario that’s been raised — “won’t ever touch our system.” State laws restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities and with other states’ abortion-related investigations.
“Any situation I feel uncomfortable about or that might be in conflict with our policies or with Colorado law, I will revoke their access — no problem,” he said.
Thornton deputy city attorney Adam Stephens said motorists’ Fourth Amendment rights are not being violated by the city’s Flock camera network. During last week’s meeting, he cited several recent court cases that, in essence, determined that there is no right to privacy while driving down a public roadway.
In an interview, Stephens said Thornton was “in compliance with the law.”
Flock spokesman Paris Lewbel wrote in an email that the company was “proud to partner with the Thornton Police Department to provide technology used to investigate and solve crimes and to help locate missing persons.”
Lewbel provided links to two news stories about minor children who were abducted and then found with the help of Flock’s cameras in Thornton and elsewhere.
At the council’s study session last week, Parker provided more examples of Flock’s role in fighting crime and finding missing people in Thornton. They included police nabbing a suspect who had hit and killed a pedestrian, locating a burglar who was suspected of robbing several dispensaries, and tracking down an 89-year-old man with dementia who had gotten into his car and gotten lost.
“It allows us to find vehicles in a manner we weren’t able to previously,” Parker said of the camera network.
Thornton installed its first 10 Flock cameras in 2022 and then added five more — plus a mobile unit — two years later. The initial deployment was in response to a spike in auto thefts in the city, which peaked at 1,205 in 2022 (amid an overall surge in Colorado). Thornton recorded 536 auto thefts last year.
The city says Flock cameras have been involved in 200 cases that resulted in an arrest or a warrant application in Thornton over the last three years.
Thornton police have access to nearly 2,200 other agencies’ Flock systems across the United States, while nearly 1,650 law enforcement agencies can access Thornton’s Flock data, according to data provided by the city.
For Anaya Robinson, the public policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, the networked nature of Flock cameras across wide geographies is a big part of the problem. By linking one police agency’s Flock technology with that of thousands of other police departments, it “creates a surveillance environment that could violate the Fourth Amendment.”
The sweeping nature of Flock’s surveillance is also worrisome, Robinson said.
“You’re not just collecting the data of vehicles that ping (a police department’s) hot list (of suspicious vehicles), you’re collecting the data of every vehicle that is caught on a Flock camera,” he said.
And because the technology is relatively inexpensive — Thornton pays $48,500 to Flock annually for its system — it’s an affordable crime-fighting tool for most communities. But that doesn’t mean it should be deployed, DeFlock’s Freeman said.
Fight remains a largely local one
State lawmakers are crafting bills this session to limit the reach of surveillance technologies like Flock’s.
Senate Bill 70 would put limits on access to databases and the sharing of information. It would prohibit a government from accessing a database that reveals an individual’s or a vehicle’s historical location information, and it would prohibit sharing that information with third parties or with government agencies outside the controlling entity’s jurisdiction. Certain exceptions would apply.
Senate Bill 71 would direct a “law enforcement agency to use surveillance technology only for lawful purposes directly related to public safety or for an active investigation.” It also would forbid the use of facial-recognition technology without a warrant and would place limits on the amount of time data can be retained.
Both bills await their first committee hearings.
Thornton says it doesn’t use facial recognition technology. Its Flock data is retained for 30 days.
Regardless of what passes at the state Capitol, the real fight over license plate readers of any type will likely continue to happen at the local level. Thornton’s council plans further discussions on Flock next month.
For Moore, the resident who is leading the charge against the cameras, potential surveillance of the immigrant community is what troubles her the most.
“We want to make sure we’re operating this so that it’s safe for all of our residents,” she said. “Getting rid of the cameras altogether is a tough sell. But there needs to be a conversation about guardrails.”
Mayor Pro Tem Roberta Ayala, a Thornton native, said she has heard a wide array of opinions from her constituents about the advantages and potential downsides of the technology.
“Could it be misused? Yes. Do we want to stop that? Yes,” she said.
But as a victim of crime herself, Ayala also knows the immense damage and disruption that crime causes victims and their families, be it a stolen vehicle or something much worse. And as a teacher, Ayala is concerned about achieving justice for the families of children who are harmed or abused.
“If it can save even five kids,” she said, “I want the cameras.”
Southbound Interstate 25 will close just north of Colo. 7 on Thursday night in Broomfield near Adams County, so that crews can install girders for a new pedestrian bridge.
The interstate will start closing one to two lanes at 8 p.m., with the full southbound closure going into effect at 10 p.m. Thursday and expected to reopen at 4 a.m. Friday, according to a Colorado Department of Transportation release. Southbound drivers will be directed to exit and immediately reenter the interstate at the Colo. 7 exit and on-ramp, the release states.
The pedestrian bridge work comes nearly a year after the transportation department started work on a new Park-and-Ride lot, Bustang ramps, a water quality pond and a pedestrian bridge crossing I-25, according to the release. The department aims to improve travel times and provide more reliable transportation options, with the project slated to be finished this fall.
The transportation department warns of slower traffic and delays for overnight drivers, the release states.
Northbound lanes will not be affected, the release states. In the event of bad weather, the closure will move to Sunday night.
The driver of the car involved in a fatal Saturday night hit-and-run that killed a 14-year-old boy was arrested Sunday, Thornton police said.
Thornton officers responded to the fatal crash near Huron Street and West Thornton Parkway just before 9:45 p.m. Saturday, according to a news release from the agency.
A 14-year-old boy riding a small motorized bike north on Huron Street was hit from behind near the intersection, police said. The suspect vehicle, a 2013 BMW 328i, then fled the scene without stopping, according to the release.
Paramedics took the teenager to the hospital, where he later died from his injuries. The Adams County Coroner’s Office will identify the 14-year-old at a later date.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued a Medina Alert for the car on Sunday morning. That alert was in the process of being canceled at 1:33 p.m. Sunday, after police found the car and took the driver into custody.
The driver had not been publicly identified as of Sunday afternoon, and police did not specify what charges he was arrested on investigation of.
License plate cameras helped officers identify the suspect vehicle after the crash, police said.
Eight people from metro Denver were indicted on federal charges related to drug trafficking, weapons and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said Thursday.
The suspects — all current or former residents of Denver, Aurora, Commerce City and Wheat Ridge — are facing charges of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute meth, fentanyl and cocaine, federal officials said in a news release.
Law enforcement officers arrested Dario Perez Quintero, 34; Guadalupe Mendoza Martinez, 46; Pedro Mendoza Martinez, 54; Abimael Felix Luque, 32; David Uvaldo Mora Sanchez, 32; Hector Joel Quijada Portillo, 30; Oscar Noel Ruelas Molina, 44; and Jose Alexis Guzman Felix, 30, this week, according to court records.
The indictment, filed Tuesday, includes additional charges related to drug possession and distribution, illegal firearm possession and money laundering, but it does not detail how investigators determined the eight suspects were identified as being involved in the scheme.
They face up to life in prison if convicted on the first count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute, federal officials said.
The case was investigated by multiple federal agencies through the Homeland Security Task Force, including Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A person of interest has been identified in a bomb threat against a courthouse in Adams County, according to police.
The bomb threat in Brighton prompted evacuations at the Adams County Justice Center and a King Soopers grocery store on Wednesday, according to officials.
The bomb threat against the justice center, 1100 Judicial Center Drive, was received at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, according to a news release from the Brighton Police Department. Investigators determined the initial call came from the area of the King Soopers at 500 Bromley Lane in Brighton.
The sheriff’s office evacuated the building. Brighton police responded to the grocery store. Although the store did not receive a threat, as initially reported, officers evacuated it as well out of caution.
Police dogs responded to the courthouse and the King Soopers and did not find any threats, Brighton police spokesperson Kerrigan Blandin said.
The identity of a person of interest is being withheld, pending the filing of charges.
The courthouse was reopened to the public at noon, Blandin said, and the King Soopers reopened at 10:45 a.m.
It’s unclear how the dozens of hearings and trials scheduled for Wednesday morning at the Adams County Courthouse were affected by the hours-long evacuation. Court officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
More than 185,000 customers were left in the dark on Sunday as widespread power outages hit the Denver area, according to energy utility officials.
During the peak of Sunday’s outages, roughly 44,000 Core Electric Cooperative customers and 145,000 Xcel Energy customers were without power, according to the two utilities.
The widespread power outages also caused disruptions at Denver International Airport and law enforcement agencies across the southeast metro area.
As of 5:15 p.m. Sunday, all but a handful of Core Electric‘s power outages had been resolved, according to the utility’s outage map. Just 30 minutes earlier, reported outages included:
23,416 customers in Arapahoe County,
20,242 customers in Douglas County,
692 customers in Elbert County,
And 1 customer in Adams County.
The cause of the outages remained under investigation Sunday evening, Core Electric spokesperson Amber King said.
Xcel Energy spokesperson Michelle Aguayo confirmed in an email to The Denver Post that “a large outage” also impacted as many as 145,000 of that utility’s customers in the southeast metro area.
As of 5:47 p.m. Sunday, power had been restored to all Xcel Energy customers, Aguayo said.
Sunday’s power issues reached as far as Denver International Airport, where trains connecting the airport’s concourses and other unspecified systems were disrupted, airport officials said. All airport operations had returned to normal Sunday evening, according to a 5:09 p.m. update from the airport.
Several local law enforcement agencies, including the Parker Police Department and Aurora Police Department, reported issues during the height of the afternoon power outages, including nonfunctional emergency phone lines and dark traffic lights.
The Brighton Police Department is investigating a fatal domestic disturbance that happened on Sunday night.
The incident happened in the area of Beldock Street and Chavez Street, according to Brighton Police Department.
Police responded to a disturbance in which a 48-year-old man fired a gun inside a home, BPD said. The suspect barricaded himself inside the home, police said, while police tried to communicate with him.
Commerce City-Brighton SWAT team and crisis negotiators tried to communicate with the suspect, police said, but the man fired “several shots” at police. BPD said the officers did not return fire. No officers were injured during the incident, BPD said.
“After repeated attempts over the course of several hours to contact the suspect and have him exit the residence safely, officers entered the home and located the male deceased with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” police said.
Police did not release the identity of the suspect at this time.
Applejack Wine & Spirits, a staple of the Denver area since the 1960s, has been sold to ABC Fine Wine & Spirits in Orlando, Florida.
ABC, one of the country’s largest family-owned and operated alcohol beverage retailers, announced the purchase Friday. The company said in a statement that the sale marks its first out-of-state acquisition in 90 years and is the start of plans to expand nationwide.
“This is a milestone in ABC’s history and a major step toward our overall expansion plans,” said Charles Bailes III, ABC chairman and CEO. “Applejack has an exceptional reputation in the industry and is an iconic beverage retailer in Colorado.”
Applejack was founded in 1961 in Wheat Ridge. It also has stores in Thornton and Colorado Springs.
Former Applejack CEO and owner Jim Shpall said he has known Bailes for about 30 years and called ABC “great, great operators.”
Shpall said Herb Becker was Applejack’s original owner. The store opened in the Applewood shopping center in Wheat Ridge. At that time, Interstate 70 didn’t reach past Wadsworth Boulevard or Kipling Street, Sphall said.
Alan Freis, Shpall’s father-in-law, bought the business in 1980.
“I had been practicing law. An opportunity arose to go into the business and I started at Applejack in 1994,” Shpall said. “Effectively, until just now, in 65 years of history, it has been run by just three people.”
The first Applejack store is in the same shopping center where it started, but has grown in size through the years. The site at 3320 Youngfield St. is approximately 40,000 square feet.
And the well-known Applejack sign in front of the store has been in place since around 1962, Shpall said.
The three Colorado stores will operate as Applejack by ABC.
Shpall said the companies haven’t disclosed the sales price.
ABC Fine Wine & Spirits started from a single downtown Orlando storefront in 1936. The retailer, privately owned and run, has grown to more than 125 locations across Florida.
ABC said it plans to remodel the Applejack stores and add walk-in humidors in the first six months.
An Aurora pedestrian died Saturday night after being hit by a car while crossing the street, police said.
The pedestrian, a 43-year-old man who has not been publicly identified, was walking west across Peoria Street at East Colfax Avenue outside of the crosswalk when he was hit, according to a news release from the Aurora Police Department. The crash happened just before 11 p.m. Saturday.
He was also crossing against the traffic signal, police said. The white Ford SUV that hit the man while driving south on Peoria Street had a green light.
Paramedics took the man to the hospital, where he later died, police said. He will be identified by the Adams County Coroner’s Office.
Speed and alcohol are not believed to be factors in the crash, according to the Aurora Police Department.
As of Sunday evening, no charges were expected to be filed in the crash “unless additional details are obtained through the investigation and/or reconstruction of the scene,” police said.
Two people were injured early Saturday morning when flames engulfed a motorhome in Adams County, according to the fire department.
Firefighters responded to reports of a grass fire in the 2900 block of E. 78th Avenue at 6:20 a.m. Saturday, according to Adams County Fire Rescue. When crews arrived, they found a motorhome on fire.
A video posted by the fire department shows a destroyed vehicle, with flames continuing to burn items inside. Firefighters pried part of the home open with an axe to douse the inside with water, the video shows.
Adams County firefighters responded to a second mobile home fire just after 8:30 p.m. Saturday in the 6800 block of Ruth Way, according to the department.
No injuries were reported, but crews rescued five puppies from the burning structure, fire officials said.
One person died and several others were injured in an early Sunday morning crash on U.S. 85 in Brighton, police said.
The crash happened at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, near the intersection of U.S. 85 and Weld County Road 2.5, according to a news release from the Brighton Police Department.
A Ford SUV driving westbound on the county road ran a stop sign and was hit by a GMC SUV traveling northbound on U.S. 85, police said in the release.
Two people inside the Ford were ejected, and two others fled the scene on foot, police said.
One of the people ejected from the Ford died at the scene of the crash, and paramedics took the other to the hospital with serious injuries, according to the release. Paramedics also took an unspecified number of GMC passengers to hospitals.
Investigators believe the victim killed in the crash, who has not been publicly identified, may have been hit by a third vehicle on the highway. The unidentified driver left the scene of the crash, police said.
The victim will be identified by the Weld County Coroner’s Office at a later date.
Brighton police found the two Ford occupants who fled the scene on foot shortly after they ran, according to the release. One was taken to the hospital with unknown injuries.
The other, 20-year-old Erik Diaz Olivas, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, DUI, reckless endangerment, failing to display proof of insurance, driving on a revoked license, leaving the scene of an accident, vehicular assault, failing to obey a traffic control device and possessing alcohol as a minor, police said.
Anyone with information on the crash is asked to contact investigators at 303-655-8740.
After a pleasant days-long stretch of warm weather often eclipsing the 70-degree mark, northern Colorado and metro Denver will see quite a change in conditions starting Friday night.
Instead of breaking records for heat, temperatures will drop substantially and snow will begin falling in the far northern mountains tonight, spreading southward into the Interstate 70 mountain corridor and Summit County by late Saturday afternoon.
By late Saturday night, the National Weather Service predicts areas of snow to develop along the Interstate 25 corridor and along the adjoining eastern plains, with travel impacts continuing into Sunday morning. Some of those areas of snow could start out as rain earlier Saturday evening before turning to snow.
Just how severe those travel impacts will be in metro Denver are still in question.
“There is considerable uncertainty with regard to the amount of snow, since we anticipate bands of snow,” according to a weather service bulletin issued Friday afternoon for the metro area. “Thus, some areas may receive very little or no snow, while others get a few inches.”
Higher amounts of snow are assured for some of Colorado’s northern mountains, with the National Weather Service forecasting around 10 inches for Winter Park, 5 inches for Breckenridge and half a foot of the white stuff for Keystone. The predicted weekend snowfall for some of Colorado’s snow-starved ski resorts will come as welcome news to an industry that has seen a decidedly dry start to the season.
Meteorologists are calling for a low of 20 degrees Saturday night, a low of 14 degrees Sunday night and a low of 21 degrees Monday night in the metro area. But by Tuesday and towards New Year’s Day, temperatures will top out in the 40s and 50s with little precipitation expected.
Two men face multiple felony drug charges following searches of Adams County apartments and the seizure of what authorities said were an estimated 67,000 fentanyl pills, 521 grams of methamphetamine, 45 grams heroin and 667 grams of cocaine.
Oscar Serrano Romano and Enrique Delgadillo Ruiz were arrested Dec. 18.
As part of the investigation, the Northern Colorado Drug Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Front Range Task Force executed search warrants for apartments in Thornton, Aurora and Westminster. During the search of the Thornton apartment, officers found several duffel bags containing bundled packages of suspected methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl, according to an affidavit from the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Officers reported finding bags they believed were being used to distribute drugs. They also found a parking pass for an apartment in Thornton where Ruiz was staying, according to the affidavit.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for the second apartment on Dec. 18. They said they found a duffel bag containing suspected counterfeit fentanyl pills, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. Officers also found clear bags of suspected cocaine, an undetermined amount of money and a notebook that appeared to be handwritten daily logs of drug sales.
Before searching the apartment, officers arrested Romano on a traffic stop after he left the building and got in his car. Officers said they found a white, powdery substance in his car’s console. Ruiz was stopped and arrested while driving away a few minutes later.
Both suspects face charges that include possession with intent to manufacture or distribute a controlled substance and conspiracy to manufacture or distribute a controlled substance.
The pair scheduled to appear Tuesday afternoon in Adams County District Court.
Northglenn police said Monday that a man their officers shot Friday night near a mall had pointed a gun at them while fleeing.
At about 9:15 p.m. Friday, police responded to a call about a suspicious person near Northglenn Marketplace. A man fled on foot and pointed a gun at officers during the pursuit, the department said. The shooting happened on the south side of the mall, near W. 104th Avenue and Bannock Street.
Police haven’t released any information about the man’s identity or condition, other than that an ambulance took him to a local hospital and his injuries don’t appear likely to be fatal.
The 17th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team is investigating the shooting.
A man was shot and injured Friday night by Northglenn officers responding to reports of a suspicious person, according to the police department.
Northglenn officers were on patrol near the Northglenn Marketplace, 10578 West 104th Avenue, at about 9:15 p.m. Friday when they received the call about a suspicious person in the area, according to a news release from the police department.
The shooting happened on the south side of the mall, near W. 104th Avenue and Bannock Street, police said.
When officers found the man, he fled on foot and was shot by an unknown number of officers, police said. It’s unclear how many times the man, who has not been publicly identified, was shot.
Paramedics took him to the hospital, where he is expected to survive, police said. No officers were injured.
Additional information about the shooting and the events leading up to it was not available Sunday morning.
