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.
A small office complex in the Denver Tech Center has been placed into receivership following a loan default, and its owner expects the lender to take the building.
“The Colorado office market is a joke. It is beyond bad,” said Pat Melton, director of leasing for the Canadian firm Melcor.
In 2016, Melcor paid $16.85 million for The Offices at the Promenade, a 132,000-square-foot complex at 7935 and 7995 E. Prentice Ave. in Greenwood Village.
Two years later, records show, the company took out a $10.6 million loan on the property from Genworth Life Insurance Co. that it needed to pay off by the end of June 2025. But the company did not do that and still couldn’t pay when Genworth gave it three extra months.
That’s according to GLIC Real Estate Holding, a subsidiary of Genworth that was assigned the loan last month.
GLIC says Melcor owed $9 million on the loan as of Jan. 28, with interest continuing to accrue at the default rate of 9.9% annually.
In a Feb. 5 lawsuit, GLIC asked the court to appoint Trigild IVL LLC as receiver to oversee the property. Arapahoe County District Judge Joseph Riley Whitfield signed off on the request Feb. 9.
Melton, the Melcor executive, said the Denver-area office market is way worse than in Phoenix, Arizona, the other U.S. market where Melcor owns office space.
“Things are healthy in Phoenix,” he said.
In Colorado, leasing demand has “gone way down,” Melton said.
“So much vacancy, and costs are so high,” Melton said of the market. “And so many brokers with their hands out for money.”
Melton said his firm tried to make a deal with the Offices at the Promenade lender, but when it was rejected, “we basically just said, ‘Take it.’”
It may not be the only Colorado building that Melcor loses. Melton said it’s “highly likely that we’re going to be in the same position at Syracuse,” referring to the 83,000-square-foot Syracuse Hill building at 6021 S. Syracuse Way in Greenwood Village.
“I think that market’s a lost cause,” he said of the Denver office market. “We kind of gave up on it.”
Melcor also owns the office complex at 6, 8 and 10 Inverness Court East in unincorporated Arapahoe County.
Light snow is expected to return to Denver this week, with small accumulations forecast across the metro area on the tail-end of a mountain snowstorm, according to the National Weather Service.
As of Thursday, 1/2 inch of snow was forecast for most of the Denver area by Saturday morning, with up to 1 inch possible, according to the weather service.
That included Aurora, Boulder, Broomfield, Castle Rock, Centennial, Commerce City, Denver, Fort Collins, Highlands Ranch, Littleton and Parker, according to the weather service.
Snow will be possible in the Denver area between 5 a.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Saturday, with the strongest chance between noon and 4 p.m. on Friday, according to hourly forecasts from the weather service.
Denver temperatures are expected to peak near 36 degrees between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Friday, forecasters said.
Simpson, 23, was waived by Charlotte after the trade deadline this month. Drafted 42nd overall by the Hornets in 2024, he played in 50 games over the last two seasons and started 17 of them, averaging 7.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists.
The 6-foot-2 guard represents additional ball-handling depth for the Nuggets as they prepare for the last third of the regular season. He won’t be eligible to play in the NBA playoffs on a two-way contract. Denver now has three guards occupying its two-way spots, with Simpson joining rookies Curtis Jones and Tamar Bates.
Simpson played 98 games during a three-year college career at Colorado. He earned First Team All-Pac-12 honors as a junior and stamped his place in program history during the 2024 NCAA Tournament, when he buried a game-winning shot against Florida to send CU to the second round.
Players on two-way contracts split their time between the NBA and G League depending on where they’re needed. Denver’s G League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold, has been without key players such as Jones, Bates and big man DaRon Holmes II for most of the last two months, with Jones and Holmes assigned to Denver and Bates injured.
The Nuggets have used Jalen Pickett and Julian Strawther as complementary guards in the starting lineup over the last month while navigating injuries. They prefer to use Tim Hardaway Jr. off the bench to generate an extra scoring jolt when they make substitutions, though Hardaway has also closed a number of games this season.
A Colorado medical device company admitted to orchestrating an elaborate health care fraud scheme that resulted in the overbilling of patients and insurers by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Zynex Inc., an Englewood-based firm that manufactures and sells medical devices used for pain management and rehabilitation, entered into an agreement Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Justice to avoid prosecution.
The company, as part of the deal, agreed to pay between $5 million and $12.5 million in penalties — the final tally will depend on its earnings and profit during the settlement period — and will forfeit millions of dollars in unpaid claims.
Zynex admitted to participating in a conspiracy to commit health care fraud, securities fraud, mail fraud and other violations, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island announced in a news release.
Zynex, in its deal with the government, also admitted to collecting more than $873 million for its products, including more than $600 million for supplies, “the vast majority of which were the result of fraud,” investigators said.
The company acknowledged that it shipped and billed for medically unnecessary supplies in excess quantities and misled investors who were unaware of the fraudulent billing practices.
Zynex agreed to implement enhanced compliance and corporate governance reforms “designed to prevent future misconduct,” the DOJ said, and will cooperate with the government’s ongoing investigations.
“This resolution addresses the seriousness of the fraud committed by Zynex while recognizing the substantial turnaround in conduct implemented under new management,” U.S. Attorney Charles C. Calenda said in the news release.
The company, in a subsequent news release, said the resolution “represents the fulfillment of the commitments we made as a new management team when we arrived in August 2025: to break from the past, rebuild the company as compliant-by-design and create a new future for the company, its customers and employees.”
Zynex leaders say they have completely overhauled their billing and supply replenishment practices, and enacted new marketing policies to ensure the company remains compliant with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
South Metro crews responded to 911 calls about smoke at a multi-family complex at 5531 S. Delaware St. at 11:26 p.m., spokesperson Brian Willie said.
The address matches Regal Apartments.
Firefighters rescued one occupant from the apartment where the fire started and performed lifesaving measures, along with medics, for 40 minutes, Willie said, but the man died at the scene.
The fire was contained to one unit, and at least 10 other residents temporarily displaced from their homes were able to return by 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The fire is still under investigation and the resident’s name will be released by the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office.
A 13-year-old Arvada girl missing since Sunday morning may be in the Gunnison area, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Marely Laureano Flores was last seen at 6:45 a.m. in the 6700 block of West 51st Avenue on Sunday, CBI officials said in a Missing Indigenous Person Alert.
Activation – 13-year-old, Indigenous, Marely Laureano Flores, last seen February 15, 2026, at 6:45am in the 6700 block of W 51st Ave in Arvada. Law enforcement believes she may be in Gunnison, CO as of 10:20am this morning (February 17, 2026). If seen, please call 9-1-1. pic.twitter.com/8BjQF054Xv
Marely may be near Gunnison as of 10:20 a.m. Tuesday, the agency said, and there are concerns for her safety.
Marely is described as 4 feet, 11 inches and 99 pounds with black hair and black eyes. She was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, blue jeans, white tennis shoes and a black JanSport backpack.
Anyone with information about her location should call 911 or the Arvada Police Department at 303-980-7300.
Colorado Department of Corrections officials forced inmates to work prison jobs through coercion that ultimately amounted to involuntary servitude, a Denver judge ruled Friday.
The state’s prisons unconstitutionally coerced labor by levying severe punishments — including solitary confinement — against prisoners who refused to work, Denver District Court Judge Sarah Wallace found in the 61-page ruling.
“By creating a framework where failure to work triggers a sequence of restrictions that culminate in a more restrictive ‘custody level’ and physical isolation, CDOC has established a system of compulsion that overrides the voluntariness of the (prisoners’) labor,” Wallace wrote.
The ruling comes out of a 2022 lawsuit in which state prisoners claimed the Department of Corrections’ approach to prison labor amounted to involuntary servitude or slavery, which Colorado voters outlawed in 2018 via Amendment A.
Prisoners in Colorado are expected to work prison jobs, which include food preparation, janitorial services and other positions within their facilities. They are paid well below minimum wage for the work. They can choose not to work, but doing so is a disciplinary infraction for which prisoners are punished, according to court filings.
State attorneys argued during the October trial that prisoners’ labor was voluntary, and that punishments for failing to work, while “uncomfortable,” did not rise to the level of coercion legally required to constitute involuntary servitude.
Wallace found that the punishments for failing to work included the “threat and use of segregation and isolation,” and that officials kept prisoners isolated in cells for more than 22 hours a day.
The judge ordered the Department of Corrections to stop using solitary confinement that lasts longer than three days to punish prisoners for failing to work, and to stop stacking disciplinary infractions related to failure to work to increase the severity of possible punishments. The order will take effect in 28 days to allow state officials time to appeal.
“The machinery of coercion is not isolated, but is a pervasive and actively operationalized feature of CDOC’s labor management,” Wallace wrote. “By consistently applying these policies, CDOC ensures the threat of punishment remains a credible and ever-present driver of inmate labor.”
Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesman for Attorney General Phil Weiser, said Weiser was reviewing the court’s ruling. He declined to comment further.
Representatives for the Department of Corrections did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.
Denver officials have started proceedings to take away a southwest Denver sports bar’s liquor and dance cabaret licenses after employees were found working as prostitutes in the bar, according to court records.
Women working at Mecca Sports Bar, 2915 W. Mississippi Ave., in Denver’s Athmar Park neighborhood, routinely offered customers in and outside of the bar sex for money, including undercover police officers, according to a show-cause order from the city.
The Denver Police Department’s vice and narcotics unit received information from the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Liquor and Tobacco Enforcement Division “about prostitution, unlawful liquor activity, and illicit narcotics sales occurring at the bar,” the order stated.
An order to show cause is a court-ordered directive for a party to appear and explain why a specific, requested action — in this case, the revocation of the Denver bar’s liquor and cabaret licenses — should not be approved.
Mecca Sports Bar did not respond Thursday to requests for comment.
Colorado Department of Revenue officials told Denver police that an anonymous complaint had been made about young girls working at the bar offering men “off-premise bottle service,” according to the order. The girls would leave with the customers, be dropped back off at the bar later in the night and be paid for the night by the bar manager.
The vice unit launched an undercover operation at Mecca Sports Bar, formerly known as Club Dubai, in August 2025, city officials wrote in the show-cause order.
An undercover officer contacted a young woman who walked out of the bar and approached the officer’s vehicle, the order stated. She told him it would cost $300 for “culear” — a common Spanish slang term for “sex,” according to the document.
The officer agreed and the woman got into the car, officials said in the document. When the officer told her it was a sting operation, the woman admitted that she and the other employees would go outside to “engage in prostitution.” She also said they would frequently purchase liquor inside the bar and resell it to customers at a higher price.
Further undercover operations in September and November of 2025 revealed that more women at the bar were engaging in prostitution and overcharging customers for profit, according to the document.
One woman told officers that the Mecca did not explicitly allow prostitution-related work, but she said several employees would ask men to leave first and then follow them outside for sex, police said.
During one of the undercover operations, officers discovered a bar security guard was armed with an airsoft gun. The man had a valid private security license but was not authorized to carry an airsoft gun while on duty, city officials wrote in the show-cause order. That was also cited as a reason to revoke the bar’s licenses.
The order was sent to Mecca’s ownership on Tuesday. Bar officials and their representatives will appear before Denver Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection officials on March 20 for the show-cause hearing.
Temperatures at Denver International Airport climbed to record highs on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
As of 2:28 p.m., temperatures at DIA had reached 68 degrees, according to the weather service. The previous Feb. 15 record of 67 degrees was set in 2017.
The Sunday record is more than 20 degrees above Denver’s “normal” Feb. 15 high of 45 degrees, weather service records show.
THORNTON — Brihanna Crittendon has rewritten Colorado hoops history.
The Riverdale Ridge senior broke CHSAA’s all-time scoring mark on Saturday, passing Tracy Hill’s tally of 2,934 points that stood for 43 years. Crittendon scored a fast-break lay-up in the third quarter against Monarch to move beyond Hill, an ex-Ridgway star.
When Crittendon banked in the decisive shot, Hill — who drove about six hours from the Western Slope to see the consequential game — sat courtside cheering her on. Then the two embraced at midcourt during the Riverdale Ridge timeout that followed, the scoring torch passing from one great to another amid a standing ovation.
Riverdale Ridge senior Brihanna Crittendon (3) scores on a layup to become the all-time leading scorer in Colorado high school basketball history during a game against Monarch on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, at Riverdale Ridge High School in Thornton, Colo. Tracy Hill held the previous record of 2,934 points for 43 years. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
“It’s exciting, it’s amazing, and the record is not necessarily something I’ve worked for, but it’s something that has been a result of all the work I’ve put in the last four years,” Crittendon said. “It’s really meaningful to add my name to the top of the list, because I never thought this would be a possibility when I first started my high school career.”
Crittendon’s scoring feat marked the pinnacle of a prep career that’s lived up to the hype from the very start. In her high school debut on Dec. 6, 2022, the do-everything guard/forward scorched Severance for 32 points on 16 of 18 from the field.
Deric Yaussi, the Severance coach at the time who is now at Loveland, recalled pulling out all the stops to limit the phenom freshman.
None of it worked, a common theme for those who have coached against the University of Texas-bound superstar.
“Coming into the game, I heard a lot about how good she was,” Yaussi recalled. “So I put my best defender on her the entire game. We double-teamed her, we had a third defender shadow her. But she didn’t flinch. She passed out of the double-teams. She looked like a senior out there, poised and controlled.
“… To drop 32 in her first game, I knew she was going to be very special. And when we played her when she was a sophomore (and she scored 28), I laughed with my players afterwards like, ‘Hey girls, we held her under 30 points! We did it!’
Crittendon lit up Class 4A in her first two seasons, a run that culminated with the program’s first state championship in 2024. Crittendon set the state scoring record for a freshman with 811 points, then set the state scoring record for a sophomore with 809 points.
Riverdale Ridge senior Brihanna Crittendon (3) meets with Ridgway alumni Tracy Hill after Crittendon scored to become the all-time leading scorer in Colorado high school basketball history during a game against Monarch on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, at Riverdale Ridge High School in Thornton, Colo. Hill held the previous record of 2,934 points for 43 years. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
By the end of that second season, Hill was paying close attention.
“She caught my eye when she was a freshman because she was averaging over 30 points, which is hard to do no matter what classification you’re playing,” Hill said. “When you’re putting up those kinds of numbers, and you do it again as a sophomore, that’s when I started to believe she was well on her way.”
So too did Riverdale Ridge head coach Tim Jones, who earned his 100th career win in Saturday’s 76-32 victory.
“It didn’t even hit us until really last year, to be honest, when somebody brought (the potential of the record) to our attention and we looked at it closer,” Jones said. “It was like, ‘Hm, that might happen.’”
When the Ravens moved to Class 6A last season — a rare move to jump up two levels at once — Crittendon’s scoring remained steady as she lead her team to the Final Four. While Hill remains No. 1 in state history in scoring average at 32.2, Crittendon is second at 28.8, while former ThunderRidge great Abby Bartolotta (nee Waner) is third at 27.24.
Those three women, by every major statistical measure, are the most prolific scorers in Colorado history.
Hill, who went on to play Missouri, Central Wyoming and Montana State before going pro in Australia, holds the record for points in a season with 928 in 1982-83. She accomplished her scoring feats in the era where there was no 3-point line, and girls also played with a men’s ball.
Riverdale Ridge senior Brihanna Crittendon (3) smiles with her teammates after becoming the all-time leading scorer in Colorado high school basketball history during a game against Monarch on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, at Riverdale Ridge High School in Thornton, Colo. Tracy Hill held the previous record of 2,934 points for 43 years. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
“I shot 500 shots a day, I practiced with the boys,” Hill said. “This was before club basketball was really a thing, so one summer I went to live with (Bishop Machebeuf sensation) Shelly Pennefather and her family in Denver to play AAU. So much work went into that record, and I know (Crittendon) didn’t break it without the same type of work ethic.”
The baller-turned-coach who led Nucla to the 1998 Class 2A title also holds the record for most points in a half, 39, and her and Bartolotta are tied for the most points in a quarter at 26. And Bartolotta and Hill are No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in the single-game scoring record after Bartolotta’s mark of 61 was topped in controversial fashion two seasons ago.
While Hill is a member of the CHSAA Hall of Fame, National High School Hall of Fame and Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, Bartolotta is also in the CHSAA Hall of Fame. She led ThunderRidge to a title three-peat and was a McDonald’s All-American as a senior in 2005. Crittendon matched that honor this season when she was selected to the game earlier this month.
DENVER, CO, APRIL 2, 2004 – DENVER POST 2004 – BEST OF THE BEST — MS. COLORADO BASKETBALL
Abby Waner — ThunderRidge (DENVER POST PHOTO BY JOHN LEYBA)
Bartolotta, an ex-Duke star who is one of two Colorado girls to win the national Gatorade Player of the Year honor, believes Crittendon’s record is another indication that “girls basketball here is better than it’s ever been” in a state that’s produced marquee Division I prospects in droves. As of late, that list has included 2021 WNBA Rookie of the Year Michaela Onyenwere and UCLA forward Lauren Betts, who will be a top pick in this year’s WNBA Draft.
“The field goal percentage is higher, players are better at finishing at the rim, they can shoot deeper threes,” Bartolotta observed. “So to have Bri at her rightful position at the top of the record books is poetic in a way. Because with her versatility, she can do all of those things. I’m happy for her and I hope she knows that she’s got a lifelong fan in me.”
Crittendon got to the record this season despite playing limited minutes as the Ravens throttled their way through their league. Riverdale Ridge won its 10 league games so far by an average of 73.3 points, with Crittendon usually playing less than half the minutes.
That, in addition to the junk defenses that the team 6-foot-3 baller regularly faces, is why Jones believes “the game will get easier for her” when she gets to Texas. Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer was also in attendance on Saturday for the record-breaking game, and Riverdale Ridge was ready with a banner that cheerleaders busted out the moment that Hill’s mark fell.
“The work gets harder, but the game gets easier in the sense of she’s not going to get double-team, tripled-teamed,” Jones said. “In four years, she could arguably be one of the best college basketball players in the country.
“And in eight years, outside of making a serious impact in the WNBA and possibly competing (for Team USA) on an international stage, I think her accomplishments at the next levels are going to etch an even greater legacy into the state of Colorado outside of what she’s already accomplished in the statistical realm.”
Schaefer took the Longhorns’ private plane to get to Saturday’s game, leaving after morning practice. Texas plays at Tennessee Sunday afternoon. But Schaefer knew that his trip wouldn’t be wasted after Crittendon, who will likely play a combination of shooting guard and small forward in college, scored nine points in the opening quarter.
“This is a monumental accomplishment that I didn’t want to miss,” Schaefer said. “(In college), she’ll have a chance to be an All-American and one of the premier players in the Southeastern Conference.”
Crittendon’s record-breaking feat on Saturday came despite Monarch face-guarding her all game, consistently double- and triple-teaming her, and serving her with several hard fouls. The Coyotes were without their best player, junior forward and Division I prospect Sienna Williams, due to injury. That added to the difficulty of containing Crittendon in the paint.
At one point, Monarch head coach Kincaid Bimler was so displeased with a foul call against one of the Coyotes on Crittendon that he shouted at the referee, “You’re starstruck out here!” Shortly after, Bimler got hit with a technical foul and Crittendon sank two free throws, part of a 20-point effort in the first half. She needed 24 on Saturday to pass Hill.
“I wasn’t really thinking about the number. I was just thinking about having fun playing in front of my family and a bunch of my friends on an emotional senior night,” Crittendon said. “I was embracing the moment and having fun. (In the first quarter), I was figuring out the defense they were playing and letting the game come to me.”
With two regular-season games left plus the playoffs, Crittendon is all but certain to become the first Colorado player, girl or boy, to net 3,000 points.
It may very well be an unbreakable mark in the record book, which likely has some omissions due to a lack of data from the 1970s, 80s and even the 90s. Schools/coaches must submit stats to CHSAA from those bygone eras for inclusion in the record book. Hill is one of those older players whose tallies were tracked and submitted to CHSAA.
“That support from Tracy, driving (six hours) to be at the game, that means a lot,” Crittendon said. “It’s woman supporting woman in their sport, and I’m going to remember that for a long time. If anyone (does break my record), I hope that will be me one day.”
THORNTON , CO – NOVEMBER 19: Bri Crittendon smiles during an announcement that the basketball star will attend the University of Texas at Riverdale Ridge High School in Thornton, Colorado on Wednesday, November 19, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from transferring 20 inmates with commuted death sentences to the nation’s highest security federal prison, warning that officials cannot employ a “sham” process for deciding where to incarcerate the prisoners for the rest of their lives.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled late Wednesday that the government cannot send the former death row inmates to the “Supermax” federal prison in Florence, Colorado, because it likely would violate their Fifth Amendment rights to due process.
Kelly cited evidence that officials from the Republican administration “made it clear” to the federal Bureau of Prisons that the inmates had to be sent to ADX Florence — “administrative maximum” — to punish them because Democratic President Joe Biden had commuted their death sentences.
“At least for now, they will remain serving life sentences for their heinous crimes where they are currently imprisoned,” wrote Kelly, who was nominated to the bench by President Donald Trump.
In December 2024, less than a month before Trump returned to the White House, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment.
On his first day back in office, Trump issued an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to house the 37 inmates “in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.”
Twenty of the 37 inmates are plaintiffs in the lawsuit before Kelly, who issued a preliminary injunction blocking their transfers to Florence while the lawsuit proceeds. All were incarcerated in Terre Haute, Indiana, when Biden commuted their death sentences.
Government lawyers argued that the bureau has broad authority to decide what facilities the inmates should be redesignated for after their commutations.
“BOP’s designation decisions are within its exclusive purview and are intended to preserve the safety of inmates, employees, and surrounding communities,” they wrote.
The judge concluded that the inmates have not had a meaningful opportunity to challenge their redesignations because it appears the outcome of the review process was predetermined.
“But the Constitution requires that whenever the government seeks to deprive a person of a liberty or property interest that the Due Process Clause protects — whether that person is a notorious prisoner or a law-abiding citizen — the process it provides cannot be a sham,” Kelly wrote.
The Florence prison has housed some of the most notorious criminals in federal custody, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. The prison is “unmatched in its draconian conditions,” the inmates’ attorneys argued.
“The categorical redesignations challenged here deprived Plaintiffs of an opportunity to show why they should not be condemned to a life bereft of human contact, in a cell the size of a parking spot, where they will see nothing out the window but a strip of sky,” they wrote.
Government attorneys said other courts have held that the conditions are not objectively cruel and unusual.
“Plaintiffs fail to show that conditions at ADX are atypical for them,” they wrote.
A 62-year-old man who opened fire inside a primary care doctor’s office in Evergreen on Thursday night before taking his own life was previously a patient at the facility, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Friday.
Investigators identified Lance Black, an Evergreen resident, as the person who fired a shotgun 19 times inside the CommonSpirit Primary Care office at 32214 Ellingwood Trail.
Deputies began responding to calls about gunshots in the medical office at 4:23 p.m. Thursday and arrived on scene at 4:28 p.m., where they found broken windows, the sheriff’s office said in a news release Friday afternoon.
Deputies entered the building and found Black, armed with a shotgun, the sheriff’s office said. They tried to de-escalate the situation, but Black fatally shot himself.
Investigators found that Black shot at doors, walls, computers and other equipment during the shooting. No one was injured and no other businesses were damaged, other than a single round that entered a vacant office.
Sheriff’s officials confirmed Black was a patient at the facility in the past, but said investigators are still looking into his motive.
“We are confident he acted alone and there is no ongoing threat to the public,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Court records show Black has at least three misdemeanor criminal convictions in Colorado dating back to 2000, all in Jefferson County. He pleaded guilty to attempted assault in 2000; to driving while ability impaired in 2004; and to harassment and violating a restraining order in 2007.
In a statement Friday, CommonSpirit officials said they were heartbroken that their patients and staff, along with the Evergreen community, experienced another shooting.
“We are deeply aware that the community, including our own caregivers, are still trying to recover from the shooting tragedy at Evergreen High School five months ago,” company leaders said.
All patients and staff are safe, accounted for and physically unharmed, CommonSpirit officials confirmed.
Anyone affected by the shooting can contact a victim advocate by email at victimservices@jeffco.us or by calling nonemergency dispatch at 303-980-7300. The Evergreen Resilience Center, 5120 Jefferson County Road 73, will be open Saturday through Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for people wanting to connect with advocates and mental health professionals.
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.
A Douglas County deputy was fired after he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, assault, careless driving and obstructing a peace officer, the sheriff’s office said.
Andrew Charles Sanders, 40, was arrested by Parker police officers near the intersection of Jordan Road and Bradbury Parkway the night of Feb. 7.
“I am deeply disappointed and disturbed by the arrest of one of our employees and the serious charges he is now facing,” Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly said in a statement. “The alleged conduct is disgraceful and stands in direct opposition to the values, integrity and professionalism we demand of every member of this agency.”
Sanders’ arrest is noted on his profile in the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training database, state records show.
He was released from jail on $1,000 bail and is set to return to court Feb. 24.
Through the first couple months of the season, Anaelle Dutat was perhaps the most consistent player for the Colorado women’s basketball team.
A double-double threat nearly every game and one of the Big 12’s top rebounders, Dutat averaged 9.9 points and 8.9 rebounds in her first 18 games.
That suddenly changed about three weeks ago. During a six-game stretch, Dutat averaged only 2.8 points and 5.3 rebounds.
Colorado Buffaloes’ Anaëlle Dutat, center, shoots between Oklahoma State Cowgirls’ Micah Gray, left, and Achol Akot, right, at the CU Events Center in Boulder on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer)
“Honestly, I don’t know (why),” she said. “I didn’t feel more tired or anything. I don’t know; I just felt really passive, like a step behind on everything. I was trying to find solutions at that point. I’m like, I don’t even know what to do.”
A meeting and film session with head coach JR Payne earlier this week seems to have done the trick. Dutat didn’t put up big numbers in Sunday’s 80-79 upset of No. 14 TCU, but she was exceptional on defense. She then had 12 points and 13 rebounds in Wednesday’s 73-63 win at Houston.
She and the Buffs will aim to keep the momentum going Saturday when BYU visits the CU Events Center.
“That TCU game was, like, a good start to going back to how I used to play,” the senior transfer from Rhode Island said. “I think the Houston one was just the same, following that TCU game, and I’m just trying to keep it like that.”
As CU makes a push for an invitation to the NCAA Tournament, it will need more big games from Dutat, a 6-foot forward.
“(The Houston game) was huge because she’s been someone that’s been so reliable and so trustworthy,” Payne said. “Everyone just trusts that she’s going to do her job and be where she’s supposed to be and things like that.
“But for someone that is coming down the home stretch of their college career, you want to perform and you want to contribute in a meaningful way, and we need her to because she is our best rebounder and one of our best defenders, an elite athlete that can create. So it was really great to see her be aggressive again.”
The entire team has been more aggressive in the past few weeks with the postseason looming. Since a 74-68 loss at Central Florida — which is tied for 14th in the Big 12 — on Jan. 18, the Buffs are 5-1, with the only loss coming against first-place and No. 19 West Virginia.
“I think we’re more urgent about getting to March Madness, the end of the season,” Dutat said. “We’re all working towards the same goal and because we’re seeing that it’s getting more and more tangible, I think we’re really all focusing on the same thing.”
While getting to the NCAA Tournament is the goal, Payne’s teams have always focused on the task at hand, rather than the big picture.
“When you’re able to focus on what’s directly in front of you, it allows you an opportunity to achieve your goal,” Payne said. “If you’re just worried about the goal that might happen a month from now, you probably won’t attain it because you won’t handle your business day-to-day.”
For now the task is taking on BYU, which has had mixed results in Big 12 play but has proven capable of playing with and beating some of the top teams in the conference.
“I think they’re really dangerous,” Payne said. “I think they are one of the more dangerous teams in the league, because they can be so good. They’re also just a team that I have a lot of respect for because I respect teams that are just going to work hard, play hard, do what they’re supposed to do, no complaining.”
That’s how CU has played of late, as it has moved into the top six of the Big 12 standings.
“I feel like we play more together,” Dutat said. “We have a better sense of how to play with each other, so I think it relates on the court and I think our off-court chemistry is getting better. Like, way, way better, and it’s translating to the on-court (chemistry), so it’s really fun.”
CU Buffs women’s basketball vs. BYU
TIPOFF: Saturday, 1 p.m., CU Events Center
TV/RADIO: ESPN+/KHOW 630 AM
RECORDS: Colorado 17-8, 8-5 Big 12; BYU 17-8, 6-7 Big 12
COACHES: Colorado — JR Payne, 10th season (181-124; 282-237 career). BYU — Lee Cummard, 1st season (17-8).
KEY PLAYERS: Colorado — F Tabitha Betson, 6-2, So. (4.2 ppg, 3.3 rpg); F Anaelle Dutat, 6-0, Sr. (8.3 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 1.8 spg, .515 fg%); F Logyn Greer, 6-4, Fr. (9.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg); F Jade Masogayo, 6-3, Sr. (12.4 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.1 apg, .514 fg%); G Zyanna Walker, 5-11, Jr. (11.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.6 apg, 2.3 spg); G Desiree Wooten, 5-8, Jr. (12.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.5 spg). BYU — G Sydney Benally, 5-9, Fr. (7.8 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 4.4 apg); G/F Brinley Cannon, 6-1, So. (7.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 1.7 spg); G Delaney Gibb, 5-10, So. (16.2 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 4.4 apg, 1.9 spg); G Olivia Hamlin, 5-10, Fr. (12.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.8 spg); G Marya Hudgins,6-0, Jr. (9.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg, .368 3pt%); F Lara Rohkohl, 6-3, Sr. (7.9 ppg, 6.8 rpg, .647 fg%)
NOTES: CU is 9-7 all-time against BYU, including a 67-66 win in Provo, Utah, on Jan. 29, 2025. That was the first meeting between the teams in 22 years. … BYU won the first six meetings with CU, all from 1975-80, but CU has won nine of the last 10, including seven in a row. … The Buffs are 12-2 at home. BYU is 4-4 in true road games. … In conference play, CU is ninth in the Big 12 in scoring (67.2 points per game), and BYU is 10th (67.1). Defensively, the Buffs are seventh (allowing 64.5 per game) and BYU is 10th (69.5). … In the past three games, Masogayo is 22-of-24 (.917) from the free throw line. … As of Friday, CU was No. 47 in the NET rankings, while BYU was at No. 56. … Cummard was an assistant at BYU from 2019 to 2025 before being promoted for this season. He played for BYU from 2005 to 2009, earning All-American honors. … CU great Shelley Sheetz, who starred for the Buffs from 1991-95, will be recognized Saturday as she will be added to the Buffs’ Wall of Honor. Sheetz, now an assistant coach for the Buffs, was CU’s first-ever Associated Press All-American, in 1995.
Jefferson County law enforcement is responding to an “active shooter incident” in north Evergreen and said the shooter is down after shooting themselves, sheriff’s officials said.
Officials said on social media that there were no known victims as of 5:25 p.m. The shooter was found dead at the scene, sheriff’s office spokesperson Jacki Kelley told Denver7.
The shooting happened in the 32000 block of Ellingwood Trail, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said on social media at 5:14 p.m.
Colorado 72 is closed in both directions at Bergen Parkway for “safety concerns,” the Colorado Department of Transportation said in an alert.
Colorado filed a lawsuit Wednesday to prevent the Trump administration from canceling more than $20 million in grants for public health.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified Congress it wouldn’t pay $600 million worth of grants already awarded in Colorado, California, Illinois and Minnesota — all states led by Democratic governors.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office said the existing grants totaled about $22 million, and the cuts would reduce Colorado’s public health funding in the future by an estimated $4 million.
The funding comes through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and goes toward developing the public health infrastructure and workforce, as well as finding and preventing sexually transmitted infections.
The grants go to all states, and the federal government hasn’t explained why it only cut them for four state. An HHS spokesperson said the grants targeted for cuts don’t align with the administration’s priorities.
The suing states argued that the cuts are illegal because they are “arbitrary and capricious,” and meant to punish states with leadership opposed to President Donald Trump.
“The president has repeatedly threatened to cut off federal funds to Colorado for purely political reasons,” Weiser said in a news release. “The abrupt termination of CDC funds would have immediate and irreversible impacts on Colorado’s public health system and critical services for communities across the state.”
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.”
