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.
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.”
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.
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.
THORNTON, Colo. — Thornton residents gathered Wednesday night for a town hall meeting to discuss the use of Flock cameras in their community, weighing the benefits of crime-solving technology against privacy concerns.
The Colorado city joins the ongoing conversation about surveillance technology that has sparked heated debates across the country.
Thornton Police currently have 15 Flock automated license plate readers (ALPRs) stationed throughout the city, plus one mobile unit. While the department says these cameras help investigators solve crimes, not everyone in the community supports their use.
“How much do you want freedom versus safety?,” said Thornton resident Steven Mathias.
For Mathias, understanding data protection measures is crucial if the city plans to continue to use the technology.
“I think we need to be really serious about data custody and integrity,” he said.
Lilia Onstott, Denver7 Photojournalist
Resident Meg Moore stressed the importance of community involvement when making decisions about the technology and how its used.
“We all have a right to have input into how we are policed, into where our tax dollars go,” Moore said.
Read Denver7’s previous coverage on Flock cameras in Denver:
The town hall featured speakers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the creator of a crowdsourcing website, deflock.me, that tracks Flock camera locations across communities.
Several council members were also in attendance including Justin Martinez, who represents Ward I.
“My opinion is so far undecided,” Martinez said, referring to Flock cameras.
On February 3, Martinez and other council members are expected to hear a presentation from Thornton Police about current camera usage.
Until then, those like Moore hope the community plays a major role in the future of Flock within their city.
“We’ve tried to create an environment here tonight where we can have that conversation, and we can meet each other at the same table, good faith conversation about something that impacts all of us,” Moore said.
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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.
During Thanksgiving dinner in 2024 — just months after her long-term boyfriend died by suicide — Amanda Killam broke down sobbing, remembering how much he enjoyed the traditional feast and mourning that he wasn’t there to share it.
This year, she cried the night before Thanksgiving, but was able to get a bit of enjoyment over dinner with family and friends. Instead of overwhelmingly painful, it was bittersweet, sharing a good meal and company while still wishing her partner were by her side.
“It doesn’t get easier, but it gets softer. The pain gets softer,” said Killam, of Commerce City.
While grieving a loved one is hard regardless of how they died, people who lost someone to suicide face unique challenges, dealing not only with sadness, but also with anger, feelings of abandonment, the sense of being blamed by others, or guilt that they didn’t know the deceased was suffering.
Professional help and support from people who’ve been through the same thing can help work through those feelings and rebuild a life, survivors said.
Killam’s partner, Rob Nickels, died by suicide at 42. She knew about his history of health problems, including a stroke in his 20s and two kidney transplants, but he never talked about the extent of his mental suffering.
Nickels had texted about his intent to die while Killam was getting ready to fly home from Dallas. She called and attempted to talk him down, then notified friends and family in Denver to call 911 after hearing sounds suggesting he’d begun an attempt. She also called businesses near their apartment in the hope someone could get there fast enough to intervene.
First responders attempted to resuscitate Nickels, but he died shortly before Killam’s plane landed in Denver. In the aftermath, functioning was nearly impossible. Sometimes she’d skip meals because the idea of choosing what to shop for and cook was overwhelming.
“It was hard not to feel like a failure,” she said.
Killam was skeptical of therapy in general, but said she started it shortly after Nickels’ death to work through the sadness, guilt and feeling of abandonment from losing her partner. It helped to have an outside perspective, because her family and friends, while supportive, didn’t know how to challenge her to change thought patterns that weren’t helping her, she said.
Any loss can be devastating, but when someone dies by suicide, the survivors may become hypervigilant, for fear that they miss a sign that someone else they love is struggling, she said.
People can’t go back to the way life was before a major loss, so they have to think about what it would mean to rebuild, Doria said. Often, that involves doing something to remember and give meaning to the life the deceased led, such as continuing to make their favorite recipe or volunteering for a cause they cared about, she said.
“When you lose someone to suicide, it can really shake your worldview and understanding of life,” she said. “Resilience is believing that it’s possible to bounce back and committing yourself every day to doing that.”
Her son left behind five children, four of whom she and her husband are now raising. They had to process their own grief while helping their grandchildren through the mental health struggles that come from losing a parent early in life.
“It was nonstop therapy for three years,” she said.
Even seven years after the loss, it still can come up in unexpected ways, such as when she saw a friend’s daughter holding her sister’s baby — an experience her oldest son never got to have with his younger brother’s children.
Her youngest grandson has been having a hard time coping with her recent breast cancer diagnosis because of the fear of losing another central figure in his life.
“I’m the only parent, mom figure he’s had,” she said.
People who are grieving also experience the secondary losses of people they thought would be with them through the worst times, who ultimately don’t always come through, Rouse said. And it can be hard to connect with people when your world is reeling, but they seem essentially fine, she said.
“My circle got a lot smaller, that’s for sure,” she said.
Amanda Killam and Rob Nickels. Nickels died by suicide in 2024 at age 42, and Killam struggled to make sense of the loss and move forward. (Photo courtesy of Amanda Killam)
Some people withdraw or don’t talk about the person who died because they don’t want to remind their grieving friend of their loss, but they aren’t going to be able to forget the loss, regardless, Killam said. People who are grieving need space to talk about their loved one, she said.
“It’s important to show up for your people because it’s not just sadness, it’s confusion, it’s trauma,” she said. “The ultimate reality is that we are going to be sad because we miss them, but we still want to talk about them.”
For the first year, Killam said she was in “survival mode,” but she’s gradually started to focus more on how she wants to honor Nickels’ life.
She scattered his ashes at places that meant something to him, wears his Broncos shirt to football games and started a mental-health-themed line of workout clothes to encourage people to reach out if they need help. He loved to exercise and would have wanted to spare others the pain he felt, she said.
“It just makes me feel like I’m keeping him alive,” she said.
Tips for supporting a grieving friend
Offer concrete help, such as preparing a meal or running errands. People don’t always know what they need if you give an open-ended offer.
Give the person space to talk about their loved ones. Avoid platitudes such as that the deceased is “in a better place” or that “it gets easier.”
Try to be understanding if the person is distracted or cancels plans.
Consider the closeness of your relationship and what you can sustain before making commitments, so the person doesn’t feel abandoned.
Continue to check in, even when months or years have passed.
Tips for handling your own grief
Important people in your life may not grieve the same way. Consider looking for others to talk with, such as members of a support group.
Decide which traditions you want to carry forward. You don’t have to do everything you used to, but preparing a favorite recipe or making a memorial ornament could help you feel close to the person you lost.
Avoid the impulse to isolate yourself.
Take small actions to care for yourself, such as sitting in the sun with your coffee.
Seek professional help if grief is interfering with your ability to function.
A 39-year-old man died after being hit by a car while riding an electric scooter in Thornton last week, police said.
The scooter rider, whose identity has not been released publicly, was headed west on West 88th Avenue when he was hit by an eastbound Dodge Caravan turning north onto Lipan Street, according to Thornton police.
The crash happened about 7:45 p.m. Thursday, police said. The intersection lies between Bell Roth Park and Sky Park in southwest Thornton.
Paramedics took the scooter rider to the hospital, where he died from his injuries, according to the department. He will be identified by the Adams County coroner’s office.
The 22-year-old man driving the Dodge Caravan was not injured and remained on scene after the crash, police said.
Additional information about the crash was not available Wednesday.
Anyone who witnessed or has information about the crash is asked to call investigators at 720-977-5069.
A Thornton teacher was injured after someone stabbed him outside Meadow Community School on Thursday afternoon, police officials said.
Thornton police responded to the attack in the 9100 block of Monroe Street just after 3 p.m. The teacher was taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life threatening and police arrested 31-year-old Damien Brooks at the scene.
There is no apparent connection between the teacher and Brooks, and it appears to be an unprovoked attack, the Thornton Police Department said in a news release.
Victim advocates were called to the school to help students and staff who witnessed the stabbing.
Brooks was previously convicted of attempted assault in June, felony domestic violence assault in 2023 and criminal mischief in 2020, according to court records.
Pickleball is rapidly growing across Colorado, fueling a wave of stand-alone and all-in-one entertainment venues opening in Denver and nearby communities.
No longer limited to local park courts, at least four pickleball destinations have emerged this year in Louisville, Thornton, Aurora and Denver, with several more projects underway.
“You could Google indoor pickleball clubs, and there’s a lot now in the Denver Metro, but I think everybody offers a little something different. So I’m excited about it. I think there’s room for all of us,” said U.S. Army veteran Liz Tanji, who, alongside her husband Michael, recently opened Ace Pickleball Club, a national pickleball franchise, in Colorado.
Ace Pickleball Club is led by husband-and-wife team Liz and Michael Tanji in Aurora, Colorado on Oct. 6, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Ace Pickleball Club, at 6626 S. Parker Road in Aurora, marks the Tanjis’ second location, building on the success of their first in Omaha, Neb., which opened in May.
Recognizing the rapid growth of pickleball, the shortage of public courts and the challenges of playing outdoors in cold weather, the Tanjis said Aurora was the perfect place to introduce a dedicated facility.
The club, which used to be a Big Lots store, has nine courts and a drill area and offers lessons.
Tanji said she and her husband learned to play during the COVID shutdown and loved the sense of community.
“Pickleball really is a sport for everyone, and we’re so excited to share it with the Aurora community,” Tanji said.
The evolution of pickleball
Pickleball was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, a short ferry ride from Seattle. Three dads, Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, are credited with creating the game when their kids grew bored with their usual summertime activities.
In 2024, there were an estimated 19.8 million pickleball players in the United States, a 45.8% increase from 2023, according to a 2025 Topline Participation Report by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.
Although the sport is often linked to older participants, the largest age group of pickleball players are between 25 and 34. The sport gained more than 1 million participants under the age of 18 between 2022 and 2023.
Kelli Alldredge, president of Chicken N Pickle, began her journey with the company not as an executive, but as a passionate customer. As an avid tennis player, she was introduced to pickleball in 2016 through friends and quickly fell in love with the fast-paced, fun nature of the sport.
“It kind of was love at first sight,” she said. “I started playing every Sunday at our original (Chicken N Pickle) location, and that’s where I met the founder and the rest is history.”
Covering more than three acres and over 45,000 square feet, the Thornton Chicken N Pickle venue features eight professional-grade pickleball courts. (Photo provided by Chicken N Pickle)
The indoor and outdoor entertainment center opened in the Thornton community earlier this summer, marking its first Colorado location.
Covering more than three acres and over 45,000 square feet, the venue features eight professional-grade pickleball courts, including six indoor and two covered outdoor courts, along with a chef-driven restaurant, a lively sports bar and a variety of games and gathering spaces.
As it grows, Chicken N Pickle is shifting its focus toward acquiring complementary entertainment and hospitality concepts, as well as exploring city partnerships to build public pickleball court facilities, with particular emphasis on key growth markets such as Houston, Phoenix and Denver.
Rising construction costs and uncertainty surrounding international economic headwinds have played a role in the shift, the company announced in a July news release.
Designed for all ages and abilities, Chicken N Pickle venues offer adaptive pickleball programming and inclusive spaces that welcome everyone, from seasoned players to first-timers and families. (Photo provided by Chicken N Pickle)
Alldredge said they are interested in opening a second location in the Denver market and are actively looking for the right opportunity. She said they’re open to different possibilities, such as building next to city-run public courts or partnering with a similar concept. New construction is on hold for now.
“We’re just kind of hit the pause button and exploring all of our options. But two things are for sure, we’re still growing, and we absolutely want a second store in the Denver market,” Alldredge said.
What’s next for pickleball enthusiasts?
Denver residents can also look forward to another destination that includes pickleball to open by the end of this year. Moodswing, a 3.5-acre, $10 million entertainment venue, is set to debut in Denver’s Elyria Swansea neighborhood.
Located at 3625 E. 48th Ave., it will include 43,000 square feet of indoor space and 33,000 square feet outdoors. It will feature 125 parking spaces, six indoor and six outdoor pickleball courts, golf simulators, a coffee shop and co-working area, a full bar and kitchen serving Mediterranean and Italian-inspired cuisine and an outdoor live music area.
Construction at Moodswing at 3625 E. 48th Ave. (Photo provided by Moodswing)
Moodswing’s owners are the founders of Denver-based development firm Perpetual First, which includes Improper City and Rayback Collective owner Justin Riley, former Improper City General Manager Giovanni Leone and former Hagerty Insurance Manager Colton Cartwright.
Cartwright said coming out of the pandemic, people were still trying to figure out how to reintegrate into society, which helped lead to the idea of Moodswing.
Cartwright said that in 2022, he and Riley went out to play pickleball and experienced a “holy cow” moment as they observed how people connected and interacted on and off the court.
“It’s just like a nice, natural icebreaker. It’s low barrier to entry, super fun and approachable, whether it’s your 8-year-old niece or nephew, or your 85-year-old grandma or grandpa and everyone in between. And so that’s what really drew us and made us think it was a cool opportunity,” he said.
Moodswing had plans to open earlier this year, but setbacks in the permitting process and how to access the property caused delays.
“It’s been quite the journey, you know, over three years working on this project,” he said.
“There’s been so much support and so much excitement around it, and (we) just really cannot wait to get these doors open.”
In the meantime, Pickleball enthusiasts can enjoy the 40 outdoor and 67 indoor pickleball courts across Denver, according to Denver Parks and Recreation.
The city plans to expand opportunities to play the sport by adding three new courts at Rosamond Park and three to five new courts at the Lowry Sports Complex. Both projects are expected to be completed by spring 2027.
Investigators are searching for a teenage girl who was last seen Tuesday night in southwest Thornton, police said.
Serinity Lowery, 15, was last seen at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 8800 block of Huron Street, near where the street intersects 88th Avenue, according to the Thornton Police Department.
Serinity is a 5-foot-6-inch, 120-pound girl with red hair and hazel eyes, police said. She was last seen wearing light pants and a dark sweatshirt with black sandals.
Investigators are concerned for the teenager’s safety, police said.
Anyone with information on Serinity or her whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Thornton Police Department at 720-977-5150.
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THORNTON, Colo. — Police in Thornton are investigating a fatal crash involving a motorcycle over the weekend.
It happened Saturday around 10:45 p.m. near the intersection of E. 104th Avenue and Fox Run Parkway.
Police said a 37-year-old man died after losing control of his motorcycle.
The rider, who was not wearing a helmet, was transported to the hospital but later died from his injuries.
Speed is believed to be a factor.
Witnesses say a black SUV may have also contributed to the crash, and police are seeking information about the SUV and its driver.
The motorcyclist’s name is being withheld pending identification by the Adams County Coroner’s Office and notification of next of kin.
Anyone who witnessed the crash or has information that has not yet been shared with investigators is asked to call 720-977-5069.
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A 27-year-old man who shot two of his Topgolf coworkers — killing one of them — in December has pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder.
Victor Salazar-Guarache took a plea deal in Adams County District Court on Thursday, according to court records.
Salazar-Guarache pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder, court records show. The plea deal dropped charges of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree attempted murder and a violent-crime sentence enhancer from his case.
The then-26-year-old Topgolf dishwasher was arrested in December after a midnight shooting in the parking lot of the Thornton Topgolf, 16011 Grant St., left one man dead, police said.
Bryce Holden, a 22-year-old Topgolf dishwasher, was shot multiple times and died from his wounds, police said. The kitchen manager who walked out with Holden also was shot.
As Holden and the manager exited the building and entered the parking lot, Salazar-Guarache got out his car and fired 12 shots at the pair, continuing to shoot even after Holden fell, according to his arrest affidavit.
A Lyft driver who was picking up another employee told officers he saw Salazar-Guarache exit his vehicle and, when he returned to his car after the shooting, it appeared Salazar-Guarache was laughing, the affidavit stated.
Salazar-Guarache will next appear in court for a sentencing hearing Oct. 11, according to court records.
Thornton police officers shot and injured an armed man allegedly resisting arrest Tuesday night.
Around 8 p.m. Tuesday, Thornton officers approached a man with a warrant in a parking lot in the 200 block of East 120th Avenue — just west of Interstate 25 near Webster Lake — according to a news release from the police department.
Officers told the man he was under arrest, but he refused to listen to officers and attempted to walk away, the news release stated.
The police department said officers fired a taser at the man, but it was “ineffective.” When the man allegedly pulled out a handgun in response, multiple officers shot him.
Paramedics transported the man to a hospital with “serious injuries,” police said in the release. An update on his condition was not available Wednesday morning.
The 17th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team will investigate the shooting and the officers’ use of force.
None of the officers were injured, and all have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation, police said. The number of officers involved in the shooting was not available Wednesday.
A 36-year-old man forced a woman into an SUV outside a hotel and fatally shot her as they argued, according to an arrest affidavit from the Westminster Police Department.
Jesse Aaron Gladney is charged with first-degree murder in the domestic violence shooting death of 36-year-old Valarie Garcia on Saturday.
A witness called 911 at 8:07 p.m. after seeing a man grab a woman by the neck and tell her to get into a Chevy Equinox at the Super 8 at 12055 N. Melody Dr., according to Gladney’s arrest affidavit. The witness also told police there was another person in the front seat.
Ten minutes later, a witness reported a man shot a woman and she was unconscious near 120th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in Thornton. Police later found the woman, Garcia, at Platte Valley Hospital in Brighton.
The woman driving the Equinox during the shooting later contacted police and told them Gladney had asked her to pick him up from a hotel in Brighton and told her to keep driving. When they reached the Super 8, he went inside and came out with Garcia.
Garcia and Gladney were arguing and he was pushing her against the car, the woman told police. The argument continued as they got in the car, until Gladney told Garcia to “Shut up or I’ll shoot you.”
A few moments later, the woman reported hearing and smelling a gunshot while she was driving. Gladney told her he shot Garcia and started slapping Garcia and telling her not to fall asleep, according to the affidavit.
Gladney kept getting out of the Equinox at stoplights to ask for help and when they got to the hospital, he started yelling at hospital staff to not let Garcia die, according to the affidavit. He then punched the windshield of a nearby car and later had to be sedated by hospital staff so they could treat his hand.
Garcia died at the hospital later Saturday night, according to the arrest affidavit.
Gladney declined to speak to detectives and the affidavit does not detail how he knew Garcia, though Garcia’s family told CBS Colorado he was her boyfriend. Investigators found a Kahr Arms PM40 pistol in the Equinox as well as a bullet in the rear passenger seat.
Gladney is in custody at the Adams County Detention Facility on a $2 million cash-only bail and is set to appear in court Sept. 30.
A man who police say planted three explosives inside a Jehovah’s Witness worship hall before killing his wife and himself on Christmas Day is suspected of bombing a union building earlier in the day.
The explosives that Enoch Apodaca, 46, allegedly planted at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in suburban Denver, Colorado, all failed to detonate. But shortly before he went to the hall, Apodaca went to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 68 building, which police called his “place of business,” where he was seen entering the building with a bucket at around 8:45 a.m. Shortly after he left, there was a “large explosion,” police said.
The building was closed at the time and no one was hurt. Police said that the explosive devices used at Kingdom Hall match the one planted at the electrical workers’ building.
Police were called to Kingdom Hall at around 9:00 a.m., officials said, after a structure fire and shooting were reported. Investigators found that Apodaca had directed his wife, Melissa Martinez, to back a black Dodge truck up to a window of the building. Apodaca broke the window with a hammer, placed the explosives, and then approached his wife from behind with a shotgun. He shot her in the back of the head, then shot himself, police said.
There were two other people in the hall at the time, but they were not injured, police said. One person used a fire extinguisher to put out a fire that began near one of the failed explosives.
Investigators found that the couple had been previous members of the Kingdom Hall congregation, but were “no longer welcomed.” Apodaca had reached out to another member of the church expressing an interest in returning, but was directed to speak with Kingdom Hall elders. Police said both acts on Dec. 25 appeared to “be a result of personal issues Enoch had with his employer, and the couples’ own issues with Kingdom Hall.”
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Thornton, CO.
CBS
Just over a year before the explosions and shooting, a representative of Apodaca’s former employer said that he had told a Local 68 union representative that he would shoot his wife and the union representative after he and his wife lost their jobs, according to The Associated Press.
Apodaca also reportedly told the representative that he would “come after the people responsible” for him and his wife both losing their jobs, AP reported. According to an application for a protection order against Apodaca filed in December 2021, Apodaca had been fired in June of that same year, but the application didn’t say why, AP reported. It’s not clear under what circumstances Martinez lost her job.
Police said that investigators found no further explosives at the couple’s homes, but did find “numerous items consistent with the manufacturing of explosives similar to those found in Kingdom Hall.”
Personal belongings had also been set out and marked for individual family members.
