Same bullet kills Denver woman, girl at party

[MarkInLA]

Source: MSNBC.COM

DENVER - A single bullet that may have been fired in celebration of the new year ripped through the wall of a house shortly after midnight Tuesday, killing an 11-year-old girl and a woman attending a party inside, investigators said.

"It might have been an accident, which still would be illegal if someone was firing a weapon recklessly in the city," Police Chief Gerry Whitman said.

Investigators believe the weapon was a high-powered rifle, Whitman said. The shot was fired at about 12:20 a.m., and the shooter may have been a New Year's reveler celebrating the New Year, police spokesman Sonny Jackson said.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22465197/

---

We're not truly free when Americans are randomly and anonymously killed in private homes. I often wonder when I'm going to be shot; living in this country, it's just a matter of time.

[Pavulon]

1. You have a better chance of hitting mega millions

than being hit by a stray round on your couch.

You have a much better chance of being killed in your car, etc.

[MarkInLA]

4. I think people are killed by random gunfire every day in this country

I agree that we have a much better chance of being killed in our cars, but still, it sucks that idiots are out there firing guns into the air just for the fun of it, not thinking about the possibility that their bullets could end up in someone's body.

[Pavulon]

8. For sure. Really stupid

thing to do. I would not agree people are killed daily by random fire. I would bet most are killed by aimed fire, now their motive could be random.

[Skittles]

13. you need to read the Dallas papers

I very often read about accidental hits from drive-bys

[maseman]

52. I am a licensed pyrotechnician

and was firing a show in Columbus, Ohio New Year's eve. We heard gun fire from what sounded like a rapid fire semi-automatic hand gun for hours before the show. Probably within about 1 mile from where we were staging the show in downtown. Assholes.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

47. The same thing came real close to happening to my little sister

They found a slug embedded in the bathroom wall after hearing an odd noise in the house- they live out in the country, so it had to be either a hunter or someone just firing off rounds in a distant neighbor's yard. I think the odds are quite a bit lower than you may believe.

[damntexdem]

60. When a bunch of idiots let off firearms to "celebrate," ...

someone is likely to be hurt or killed.

And in those minutes around midnight on New Year's Eve, I'd take my chances in my car, or buying a lottery ticket, if I could know I was miles away from any idiots firing off their guns.

[Canuckistanian]

61. A lot higher chance than if you were living in Canada

I remember when I was living in Toronto and one night we heard something that sounded like gunfire.
We called the cops. They took it deadly serious and arrived in minutes.

Hearing gunfire on a city street is such an unusual event we thought it was serious. It was only the second time in my life that I'd heard live gunfire.

Luckily, it turned out it was some yahoos firing a starter's pistol.

[TomInTib]

2. I barely dodged one a few years ago.

Standing in my front yard, talking to my Mother and Brother-in-Law.

I took one step backward to pick up a glass of wine when I heard this pffffffftt sound and an impact near my right foot.

So I said, "Damn, I just missed a bullet!". I have been around a lot of shooting in my life.

Sure enough, I dug a 9mm round out of the soil near my foot.

If I had not stepped back, I would've been drilled.

[lpbk2713]

30. I have heard an occasional glass of wine will do you some good.

But I wasn't aware it could actually save your life until now.

:thumbsup: :hi: :thumbsup:

[bluerum]

37. A similar incident happened to me many years ago - I was walking down a

road near my home.

Heard a shotgun blast about quarter mile away - then heard the shot whizzing by and through the hedges across the road. I stopped and looked around for the hunter but did not see them.

People wonder why I argue for tighter gun controls. It's because any goon can go out and buy a shotgun and start blowing off rounds. It may be their right to do so, but when their rounds pass close to me it becomes my business.

[Chulanowa]

3. If they had only had a gun of their own they could have killed whodunnit back!

[MarkInLA]

5. Yep, that would probably be the NRA's response, wouldn't it. (n/t)

[brentspeak]

6. If an accident, the idiot who did this should get at least 30 years, no chance for parole

If not life.

[John Q. Citizen]

28. Yes. My only question is how many years should US taxpayers get for the millions dead in Iraq?

Probably something like 10 or 15 years. Until we require people to actually take responsibility for thier actions, we are going to continue to see these kinds of needless deaths, whether it be two from a reckless disregard on New Years, or a million in Iraq for the same reason.

Our politicians who voted to fund the slaughter should get 30 years.

Yes, I agree with you completely!

Reckless behavior when it results in death needs to be punished!

[Wcross]

7. Sure am glad I don't live in a city/town.

I have never heard of or seen anyone "celebrate" anything by shooting guns off indiscriminately in the country.

[MarkInLA]

9. and not just any gun - a "high-powered rifle". (n/t)

[Wcross]

11. 10 bucks says you can't find a reporter who has used "low powered rifle" in any article.

Journalistic sensationalism, "high powered rifle" means nothing.

[krispos42]

24. It's generally used to distiguish between rimfire shooting

and centerfire shooting.

Not saying this for you, necessarily, but for the population in general.

[qanda]

10. They do it all the time around here and I hate it

We usually go into the basement until the idiots are finished. I don't know why the police allow it to go on. I guess it will take a tragedy before they do something about it.

[Wcross]

14. Are we talking about target shooting or celebratory gunfire?

Are you talking about an urban area or rural? "All the time" leads me to suspect we aren't talking about celebratory gunfire.

[qanda]

16. When I said "all the time"

I meant for New Year's celebration-- I thought that's what we were talking about. BTW, I live in a suburb of Baltimore.

[Wcross]

18. I will repeat, I am SOOOO glad I live in a rural area. n/t

[qanda]

21. Well, it's enough to make me want to move far away from everyone

[Wcross]

22. I used to live in Silver Springs, Md.

I prefer my rural home to the "city". I can't even SEE a neighbors house from my property. Life is good.

[Ecumenist]

29. I beg to differ with you, WCross...

I don't know where you live but I spent my New Year's holiday on the the north Coast of California in a VERY RURAL area and so help me God, me and Mr Ecumenist listened to more gunshots than I've EVER heard. Consider that I am a native Angelina, (born in LA) and presently live in Sacramento. Himself is from Central Texas, spent a considerable period of time in the military and has lived in Illinois, East St Louis, Anchorage AK, Chicago, LA and Sacramento and both he AND I were absolutely shocked by the gunfire we heard going on for at least 10 minutes after midnight.

I just cannot imagine that you live in a rural area of the country where people don't have and use guns indiscriminately at times like New Years.

[Wcross]

41. I live eight miles outside of the town of Wartrace, Tennessee. (pop 842)

Fireworks are legal here so people do shoot them off. It may be because of the livestock most people own. It wouldn't be too neighborly to kill your neighbor or his cow, horse, goat, sheep or chicken. They would probably know who did it.
I might also ask you, were these people shooting in the air or shooting at a backstop on their home target range/or in a safe area with a backstop? There would be nothing wrong with shooting in a safe manner.

[Xithras]

58. In Ca., shooting on New Years is legal if done in a rural area and in a controlled manner.

The line, of course, is that you're shooting away from buildings and populated areas. California laws are fairly specific in that they relate to shooting in the cities or shooting towards populated areas, but they HAD to go easy on rural areas to avoid banning bird hunting. That's why it's generally legal to fire a weapon into the air in rural California...so long as you put a moments thought into the direction the weapon is pointing and where the bullet is coming down.

You also make a good point about the backstop. I have one behind my house, and while I've personally never used it to celebrate New Years, I can see how some might.

[Wcross]

64. Shooting in the dark seems like a waste of ammo even if done safely.

Not to mention you would be forced to clean the weapon after firing it. Much better off getting some fireworks & popping those off.

[Ecumenist]

70. Oh no....These knuckleheads were shooting up into the air...

And please believe me when I say that there are a bazillion head of cattle, primarily dairy herds, lotsa chickens, sheep, etc. There were home based fireworks, roman candles etc, (and there was a boatload of them) and we actually heard at least two different automatic firearms. It sounded like a deranged popcorn popper. The area I was in is VERY rural with a narrow band of more built up towns, Eureka, Arcata, McKinleyville, and Fortuna BUT once you go inland , it quickly gets past rural to WILDERNESS. I'm talking Roosevelt Elk, Foxes, Fishers, Bears, wolves, Mountain Lions, Bobcats and widely believed to be the home base of Sasquatch, to say the least. The land is so remote that there are planes that have gone down never to be seen again. It ain't anywhere near urban.

[Wcross]

74. Damn, I hate idiots like that.

Not to mention that you should NEVER touch a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. ( I kinda sorta suspect drinking might be involved in the poor decision making)

That stuff doesn't fly here, maybe there are different cultural factors here, I don't know.

[Fierce]

40. Depends on the part of the country, I guess.

We get it a lot here on New Year's Eve.

[GigiMommy]

43. You've never been to Detroit on New Years Eve then.

Sadly, it has been "tradition" to shoot off guns. Don't know when it started but it's been going on for decades. When I lived at home then, I would either sit on the floor away from windows or go in the basement. I not kidding. The shots would start before midnight and last sometimes about an hour.

[superconnected]

66. Is that the city that also used to burn down buildings one night a year?

I believe it was either detrioit or chicago...

[GigiMommy]

69. Yep it was (Halloween eve or Devil's Night) but...

it's gotten much better now.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

12. Anyone remember seeing Elliott Gould in "Little Murders" ...

back in the 70's? It seemed so absurd at the time, not so much anymore. :hide:


Shooting a high powered rifle in a populated area is illegal because it's so obviously dangerous. The idiot-shooter should be charged with murder, not manslaughter.

[NYC]

15. No, why did you do that to me?

I had to look it up.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067350/

Plot Summary:

A girl brings home her latest boyfriend to meet her parents. This is done against the background of random shootings that had just begun in NYC at the time the play was written. How the family's failings are magnified by the social confusion of the times is the crux of the plot.

----------------------

However, now I'm stuck with another question. What random shootings in NYC around 1971? I don't remember, unless it was Son of Sam.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

17. Hiya NYC !

:hi: This more informative review should help those who never saw it, understand my point ... kinda. It's a very disturbing 'comedy'.

http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/littlemurders.php

[NYC]

23. I just read all the comments at the link where I posted

the Plot Summary.

Someone quoted the minister at the wedding in full.

Sounds like a very strange movie, but sounds interesting. A few people said you had to live in NYC at that time to appreciate it, but others said it remained relevant.

Thanks for the link. I just read it.

Since this was originally a play, I'll see if I can get the book at the library.

Thanks for tonight's education. :hi:

[KG]

19. ah, the lastest sacrifices on the alter of 2A.

[Wcross]

20. I don't recall the second amendment addressing negligent homicide.

Would you feel better if he had run his car into them?

[krispos42]

27. Ya know, it's funny...

When a racist redneck reads a little too much Klan material and decides it's a good day to find a black man and lynch him, nobody sighs and says "Another sacrifice on the altar of the First Amendment".

When a domestic-abuser husband gets out of jain on a technicality and decides to murder his wife, nobody sighs and says "Another sacrifice on the altar of Habeas Corpus."

When a cop catches a murderer but the case gets thrown out because of illegal search and seizure, nobody says "Another sacrifice on the alter of the Fourth Amendment."

I've always though that an interesting phenomenon.

Especially in contrast to the Freepers, who are loud and proud proclaiming that they don't want any sacrifices to the altar of Habeas Corpus or the Fourth Amendment.

[High Plains]

54. Ya know, it's funny...

...that the gun defenders can shrug off any evidence that the presence of millions of guns in this country leads to deaths.

Why don't we just admit it: As a society, we have decided that the 10 or 15,000 annual gun murders are the price we are willing to pay to have our precious guns.

Me, I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm not a gun owner. But that's mainly because I'm a dangerous marijuana felon.

[krispos42]

73. Except that they apparently don't.

No doubt they shift the demographics around, as to who is killing whom and with what, but the evidence suggests that any perceived deaths that are prevented by strictly limiting guns (e.g., "moment of passion" or "moment of anger" killings) are offset by a higher rate of assaults and home invasions, each of which has its own risk of becoming a murder.

Our non-gun homicide rate is as high as the total homicide rate of many Western European nations. Obviously there is more to our problem than simply hardware.

And marijuana should be legal. Far more people are killed over it being an illegal and smuggled commodity in a month than will ever die in a THC-fueled mall shooting.

[Thothmes]

25. another "magic" bullet

[slackmaster]

50. It's amazing what a rifle bullet can do

The amount of energy they carry, and the speed with which they travel, is hard to comprehend intuitively.

[Xithras]

59. Here's a simple example...

My B-I-L brought over a box of "special load" .30 aught for some target shooting a couple of months ago. One of his shots missed the backstop and hit a 10" thick sprice about 4 feet behind it. The rifle bullet passed completely through nearly a foot of living spruce. Never figured out where it landed either. Thankfully one bullet isn't going to hurt the tree.

How many human bodies are 10" of solid wood equal to?

[slackmaster]

63. Bullets behave differently in different materials - and an example from the open ocean

In 1990 I was on a US Navy "Tiger Cruise" from Pearl Harbor to San Diego, visiting with my brother who was a junior officer on the ship.

About halfway between Hawaii and the mainland, we spent an afternoon shooting various weapons with the sailors and Marines who were on board. A splendid time was had by all. I shot everything from a 9 mm Berretta handgun that the military had just adoped recently, up to a 25 mm cannon.

The next day, a sailor on the ship found an intact, spent tracer bullet (basically a hollow shell of thin metal) waaaay up on one of the highest observation points on the ship. Every round of ammunition that was fired the previous day had been pointed about as far away from that place as possible, without going straight down into the water. Many people had hypotheses about how that bullet could have ended up there. We had been more than 10 miles from the nearest ship (other than our own) that could have been the source.

Check this out for information on terminal ballistics: http://www.theboxotruth.com/ - Site is run by a retired physician who loves to shoot at things.

[benEzra]

78. A .30-06 deer rifle will penetrate in excess of 1/2" mild sheet steel, IIRC

even with softpoints.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

77. I did an exam question in Engineering that consisted in measuring the speed of a bullet

What I came up with was:

                       +----------------+------------+
                       |                |            |
                       |Wire A    Wire B|            |
 ____`=========  >     |                |            |
|_,--´°                |                |            |
                       |                |            <
                    -------            ---           <
                      ---              ---           < Resistor
               Battery |      Capacitor |            <
                       |                |            |
                       +----------------+------------+

While the circuit is whole, the tension at the capacitor is equal to that of the battery. When the bullets rips through wire A, the capacitor starts to discharge into the resistor. Then it rips through wire B and the capacitor stops discharging, reaching a lower tension that can then be measured. From the values of the resistor and the capacitor and the starting and ending tension, one can calculate how much time the bullet took to travel from A to B. Then you only have to divide the A-B distance by it. Neat huh?

I begged the people at the Army school I attended to allow me to set up the experiment for real, but nothing came of it.

[candymarl]

26. I live in a rural area

Lots of hunting. Lots of gunfire during hunting season(s). Lots of shooting on New Years Eve.

[tomreedtoon]

31. Okay, calm down and look at the acknowledged facts.

First, it was a middle-class suburb. That means teenagers. That means people who would never join the NRA, so don't blame them.

Teenagers want power. That has always been true of teenagers. You don't get to do anything as a teen, and you're always chomping at the bit for something to give you status, prestige, and some salving of your abused ego.

And one of the greatest forms of power any teen can have is firing a gun. Why do you think most video games are about killing with guns? Because teens like it.

And teenagers are stupid. I know I was, and everyone I knew was. They don't know how deadly firearms can be, or for that matter, pipe bombs or potato guns. All they know is the sense of power from wielding one of these things.

It may be possible to make obtaining of guns far more difficult, but that doesn't really work, because if you want power...and you know the ways around the rules...your teenager will always get a gun. If they don't kill you with guns, then with their cars, their knives or their meth labs.

It doesn't make sense to ban guns. It makes far much more sense to ban teenagers. Throw 'em in freaking camps until they're 21. (Come to think of it, they have that; they're called high schools, but they let them go home at night. Just lock 'em up in the schools. That's what teachers have always wanted to do anyway, have kids around to beat up and abuse.)

[DS1]

46. I'm glad you're not my lawyer

"That means teenagers"

:rofl:


Nice leap.

[tomreedtoon]

65. Of course it was a teen. And he will never be caught.

I am taking the most common person to open fire in an all-white suburb; the teenager.

The only adult that would take a shot would be a psycho. And no matter how many Freddy Krueger movies or Geraldo Rivera reports you watch, psychos are rare, and are more likely to take their own lives before another's.

As I explained, teens - most likely males, although I'm not discounting a "grrl" such as a gang member or a goth - are the most likely ones to take random shots in the suburbs. If it had been in an all-black ghetto area, all bets would have been off, because everybody shoots everybody there. And we wouldn't be talking NRA, we'd be dipping our toesies in the gooey swamp of race.

Unless the police find a specific suspect, such as a vengeful neighbor, we have to go with the most deadly caucasian creature of all - the teenager. And if this is the case, the police will never, ever find the real killer, or they'll pin it on some wandering hobo.

Would you like to know why?

My own experience is a good example of how cops handle juvie offenders. I was held at knifepoint in my apartment fifteen years ago by a couple of Hispanic teens. They took my car, TV, and my computer, and gave me a case of PTSD that would erupt a decade later into emotional agony (as it usually does, a delayed reaction). When I took my robbery to the police, who calmly noted the obscene stuff sprayed on my walls and my beaten, frightened state, they came to the conclusion that I had hired the two to have sex with, and it went bad.

They even forced me, the victim, to undergo a polygraph test, to "prove" this.

This was untrue, whether you believe it or not. I didn't know the robbers. They were likely other residents of the apartment complex, possibly the ones who set their apartment on fire a year later while smoking crack. But with the suspects being teens, the police couldn't prosecute them or do anything effective to them. They would have to wait until the kids were 21 to throw them behind bars. So they got out of prosecuting a difficult case by throwing the blame on me, a victim.

So yes, in the absence of other evidence, the killer was a teen or teens unknown, who will never be arrested.

ON EDIT: You know where you can stick your "ha, ha, ha" icon.

[DS1]

76. They've already nabbed a 26 year old suspect

I didn't read the rest of your ramble because none of it is relevant.

:hi:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

32. Colorado Police Arrest Suspect in Single Bullet Killing of Woman, Girl at New Year's Eve Party

A 25-year-old man was later arrested at his home on investigation of two counts of first-degree murder, police spokesman Sonny Jackson said.

sorry about the link, it's the only one I could find.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319399,00.html

[MarkInLA]

33. good - I'm glad they found him

It would have been even more tragic if the guy had gotten away with double-murder.

[sasquatch]

36. What an idiot, you don't fire bullets into the air

I think they should sentence him to retake junior high physics; earth to jackass, what goes up must come down.

[Lance_Boyle]

51. shooting into the air not so much a problem

the velocity of a round fired into the air on its return trip to ground level will not be sufficient to cause harm, unless it lands in a soft spot like an eyeball. The slug just doesn't have the mass to gather much speed on its way down. Won't penetrate skin. The real problem, as seen in the Denver case, is people trying to shoot into the air, and missing.

[Xithras]

62. That is 100% incorrect.

That's a misunderstanding of an old bit of research.

A .30 caliber bullet fired straight up into the air will have a falling velocity of about 300 feet per second. The research that discovered this fact initially claimed that 300 FPS was too low to do harm. According to that research, it would hurt like hell, but wouldn't kill you.

Unfortunately there was another bit of research that later found that a .38 caliber revolver bullet will actually penetrate at speeds as low as 191fps, and that the .30 in the original research would cause a flesh injury at only 124fps. It may not have enough energy to penetrate skulls, but you'll be going to the ER to have that bullet dug out of your ass.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a950414b.html

[benEzra]

79. It came through the wall of the house; it wasn't fired at the sky.

It was fired more horizontally than vertically, it would appear.

[regnaD kciN]

34. Celebrating the New Year...twenty minutes later???

:wtf:

[JI7]

35. i can't stand people that celebrate by shooting guns

in Los Angeles there have been times when people have been killed.

i still remember one time it was a little boy who was killed while he was playing with his friend. two little kids just playing together and one of them gets struck down by a bullet and dies and his friend sees it.

[kaiden]

38. Ah, Denver.

We used to live in Northwest Denver, at a time when it was a "transitional" neighborhood. New Year's Eve always saw one or three deaths by celebratory gunfire. When the Broncos beat Green Bay in the 1998 San Diego Super Bowl, we were at home. We were so stoked, we decided to walk up to the local bar. We opened the door, heard the ritual gunfire and closed the door. We weren't going anywhere without Kevlar helmets.

[Thothmes]

39. In Newport News, VA

A group of teenage boys were firing hand guns in the air. One of the teens accidentally shot himself in the head. He is listed as in stable condition at the local hospital.

[EvilAL]

42. I had access

to guns since I was a kid. Target shooting, hunting. Never felt the need to start shooting in the air for any reason other than at a clay pigeon or a game bird.
I'll never accidentally shoot myself in the head either.

[EnviroBat]

44. Father and Grandfather were gun collectors.

When I was growing up I learned how to handle a firearm. When I was a kid I made the mistake of looking into the barrel of a revolver I was holding, my grand-dad saw this. I never made that mistake again, and I got my ass tanned for it. I was always taught to treat every weapon as if it were loaded, and always point it towards the ground. I developed a respect for handguns, and to this day I handle them as what they are. A deadly tool with which one simple oversight or mistake will end a life. You never point a gun at anything you don't intend to blow a hole into. Firing a gun into the air in celebration is a fucking stupid, small-penis-ed thing to do, and if you are the type of mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging moron that does this, your firearms should be removed from your possession. You should not be allowed to own a gun, period.

[jaksavage]

53. So you would not allow

Fucking stupid, small-penis-ed type of mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging morons to own guns?

What is the test for that?

1) Knuckles drag? check

2) Mouth-breathing? check

3) Small penis? check

4) Voted for Bush? check check

[EnviroBat]

56. Hmmm, pretty much sums it up. n/t

[LanternWaste]

45. And people wonder...

And people wonder why I go out of my way to avoid being near someone who's armed... just one more "accident" I'm forced to worry about.

[SyntaxError]

48. Oh wow, this seriously sucks...

I didn't know people actually did that... If they want to make some loud noise, couldn't they just buy some fireworks instead? Sure, it may be illegal in most places, but I would assume shooting your gun into the sky would be too, no?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

49. When I was a kid someone shot my bedroom on New Years Day

At least my parents assumed it was on New Years Day. The bullet had hit a vent on the roof and came out the ceiling less than three feet from my bed. I slept through the entire thing, we only found out about it when the slug was found in my laundry basket (where it had "killed" some of my dirty laundry) and then my mother found the hole in the ceiling. I don't remember much about it, but my mom still goes on about the event every time something like this happens.

[Turbineguy]

55. Idiots with access to fire arms

Obviously high explosives should be made available to these people. Then they would blow themselves up (where did that term "playing with dynamite" come from anyway?) and not shoot others.

[DotGone]

57. People who engage in celebratory gunfire should do so responsibly

by making sure their chins are directly in front of the muzzles before pulling the triggers. They're not going to miss much since the bullets will be traveling through a vacuum.

[superconnected]

67. Bet the dumbshit who did this is super pro gun rights.

[Pavulon]

68. Who care is they are pro life, anti whatever

they are a moron and criminal. Responsible for others death is the only issue here.

[Wcross]

75. You lost that bet scooter.

A 25-year-old suspect in a New Year's shooting that killed a young girl and one of her aunts told police he was aiming at a streetlight.

Court papers say Pedro Cortez told police Tuesday that he was aiming at the light at the corner of Wells Place at Winona Court with his 44-caliber revolver.

He said he was in a parking lot when he fired at the light.

Detectives at the crime scene noted that the home where Angelica Martinez, 11, and Rebecca "Becky" Yanez, 47, were killed was directly in the background.

-----

Cortez was convicted as an adult in 2000 of aggravated robbery and menacing, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7862590

As Rambo liberal pointed out, this individual was not allowed to own a gun by law. He is a convicted felon.

[RamboLiberal]

71. Numbnuts was aiming at a street light

A 25-year-old suspect in a New Year's shooting that killed a young girl and one of her aunts told police he was aiming at a streetlight.

Court papers say Pedro Cortez told police Tuesday that he was aiming at the light at the corner of Wells Place at Winona Court with his 44-caliber revolver.

He said he was in a parking lot when he fired at the light.

Detectives at the crime scene noted that the home where Angelica Martinez, 11, and Rebecca "Becky" Yanez, 47, were killed was directly in the background.

-----

Cortez was convicted as an adult in 2000 of aggravated robbery and menacing, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7862590

And this fool shouldn't even had a gun by law! Gawd I hate fools like this jerk!

[susanna]

72. I live in Detroit, and all night long

shooting goes on. I'm pretty firearm-savvy and can actually tell my companions what's going off; this year, I heard a couple automatics and several shotguns within a few minutes of the new year. (We have a two-tier porched house and stand outside until we hear the gun level of the year. This year was particulary gun-heavy and we went back inside quickly.)

The upshot is: it's sad. I celebrate the New Year with some champagne, yet some of my neighbors seem to think that shooting up the city is OK. I've never understood this, honestly.