Crime
We moved Boulder Crime News and police blotter out of News and made it a primary category. Even though crime news is the highest in analytic s some readers complain because it ruins non violent news. Our readers and viewers prefer science, tech environmental and entertainment news. So crime news junkies now have your own bad news section here.
Boulder homeowner shoots female intruder in the middle of night
May 23rd
Police in Boulder were called to a home in the 400 block of College Ave. at 3:26 a.m. after a resident reported that he had shot an intruder.
The male and female homeowners (husband and wife) had been sleeping in their bedroom when they were awakened by a noise, which they initially thought may have been a raccoon outside their exterior bedroom door. The screen door was closed but unlocked.
When the female homeowner realized that the noise was not a raccoon, but someone who had opened the door and entered the bedroom, both she and her husband shouted for the intruder to get out. According to the homeowners, they continued to shout to warn the intruder to leave. The male homeowner shouted that he had a gun and would use it if the intruder did not leave immediately. The intruder continued walking through the bedroom, toward the couple. The couple could see a light that the intruder was carrying as the intruder continued toward the bed.
The husband and wife told police the intruder would not acknowledge their demands to leave. At that point, the husband fired one shot toward the light, and heard what sounded like something falling onto floor. When the husband turned on the light, they saw an unknown female intruder on the floor with a gunshot wound to her hip. The couple called 911.
The female intruder was taken to the hospital for treatment. Her injuries do not appear to be life threatening.
Police are continuing to investigate this case and are working in partnership with the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office. At this time, police are not releasing the names of the homeowners or the female intruder, because the case remains open. No further information will be released at this time.
Boulder police: Laptop burglars are the same guy
May 21st
Boulder police are investigating two residential burglaries, and victims have provided very similar descriptions of the suspect. Composite sketches of the suspect are attached. In both cases, the suspect stole laptops.
The first burglary took place on May 11, in the 900 block of University Ave. around 1:37 a.m. Two male roommates and their male friend were home at the time of the burglary. One of the roommates happened to be at a window, and saw the suspect attempting to enter a bedroom of the residence from the outside. The roommate left the window to alert the others, and they heard glass shatter. When the victim of the computer theft checked his room, the suspect had fled with the victim’s laptop. The case number for this burglary is 12-6294.
The second laptop burglary took place on May 14, in the 1000 block of 12th St. The female resident was moving out around 5:25 p.m., when she noticed what she described as a college-age, white male going up the stairs. She informed him that no one was home, and continued carrying a box to her car. When she returned a few minutes later, she noticed the same male coming out of the building and found that her laptop was missing when she reentered her apartment. The case number for this burglary is 12-6480.
Police believe the same suspect is responsible for both burglaries.
The suspect is described as:
- White male
- “College age”
- Approximately 6’0” tall
- 170 pounds
- Short brown hair
- Seen in 12-6294 wearing a pink, vertically-striped (pinstripe) shirt with long sleeves. Seen in 12-6480 wearing tan cargo-style shorts, sneakers and a white or light-gray shirt with multi-color writing.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Sarah Cantu at 303-441-4328. Those who have information but wish to remain anonymous may contact the Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or 1-800-444-3776. Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website atwww.crimeshurt.com. Those submitting tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s) may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 from Crime Stoppers.
Brigham-Gate and Tom Carr's Past by Rob Smoke: Boulder Colorado
May 18th
Boulder’s City Attorney Tom Carr professes Seth Brigham a growing menace, progressing daily closer to violence against the Boulder city council. It’s an entertaining notion — Seth kidnapping council and turning them into his personal slaves would make a great horror-flick — however it is crap.
Interesting that Brigham-gate should touch on that issue of unpredictable violence, when the most discussed issue of Tom’s 2009 lost Seattle city attorney campaign hinged on the same issue in another context.
During Tom’s tenure as Seattle city attorney, there were extensive “excessive use of force” complaints against the police department of the city of Seattle. Imagine you’re the mom of a developmentally disabled
teenager who gets his face smashed by a Seattle police officer — an officer who had done something similar
on other occasions, but was still on the force because of corrupt internal review. Let’s be clear: Under
Tom Carr there were 400 back-to-back-to-back non-disciplined “excessive use of force” cases.
In other words, the officer was not held accountable with removal or suspension of his job — and in many cases, where an adjunct review board did recommend to Tom that he take disciplinary action, which Tom was actually
responsible for doing, he did nothing.
The Federal Justice Dept. came in, and the Deputy Attorney General of the Human Rights Division, Thomas Perez, cited the entire oversight process as broken. In point of fact, he could have cited Tom Carr, but instead cited everyone including Tom. It was, however, up to Tom to act if others wouldn’t — or at the very minimum,
act more appropriately on a case by case basis with victims of brutality. Google “Seattle police brutality”.
In other videotaped cases, an innocent hispanic man is kicked in the head by an officer while lying on the ground.
In another case, a pregnant woman was tasered multiple times by three officers and Tom appealed a Federal judge’s
ruling to allow the woman to move forward with a civil claim for damages.
Tom did not lose the 2009 Seattle city attorney’s race to a relative newcomer
by some weird accident, or, as he claims, because it was a “bad year for incumbents.”
No, he lost the race in an absolute landslide because people were sick to death of seeing reports about police brutality and suffering victims. Jon Kita, an asian restaurant owner, interviewed in the Seattle press about the videotaped “excessive use of force” assault he endured, put it this way, “How is it possible to get to 400 cases in a row with no discipline?”
Indeed, how is it possible? It must be noted, Tom absolutely oversaw the contracts for
civil claims defense of police officers alleged to have harmed people. During Tom’s tenure, the bill added up
to over $18 million dollars, which all went to one law firm which Tom helped choose. If at any time during those
400 non-disciplined cases there was a turnaround towards implementation of discipline, that would have caused the costs for handling those cases — the billings — to nosedive. Tom prevented that from happening. By the way, Tom’s replacement in Seattle, made it a first order of business to dissolve that highly questionable contract — and guess what? The firm itself has since dissolved.
The question remains, at what point in time did Tom become aware that the city of Seattle was receiving bad publicity for its brutality problems? Was it a year before the election? Could Tom have a rational understanding that he would lose — that in fact, the other side could nominate a doorknob, and he’d probably lose? In other words, what was the nature of Tom’s commitment to having this highly-paid bunch of lawyers defend brutal officers? Did Tom somehow feel that his own personal sense of justice and duty serving the city of Seattle was more significant than the information he was getting from the ever-growing list of injured residents seeking bare compensation or apology for their suffering?
Or did someone pay him to take his election loss with a smile and the “it was a bad year for incumbents” remark?
And how did the city of Boulder manage to hire him, at a pay increase of about $50k per year, without ever discussing
the 2-to-1 margin of loss in the 2009 election, and the brutality issues which always went unresolved and which were
lead stories in the local news, time and again — the hallmark of his term as city attorney?
Rob Smoke is a columnist for Boulder Channel 1. He writes about city of Boulder Politics