Colorado police still searching for a shooter in multiple random attacks

Police descended on a home in northern Colorado early Thursday as authorities continued to hunt for the person behind a series of seemingly random shootings that have left two dead and two wounded since April.

Following one of hundreds of tips that have poured in, members of a special task force sent an “evidence recovery team” to an address on County Road 9 in Loveland, the city where two of the four shootings have taken place, according to a statement issued by the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office.

Residents have remained on alert in Colorado’s northern corridor since April, when a 20-year-old girl was shot in the neck while driving through Windsor. That attack, coupled with the shooting deaths of William Roger Connole in Loveland and John Jacoby in Windsor over the next six weeks, stoked concerns that someone was opening fire on vehicles or pedestrians at random.

Connole’s death on June 3 drew national attention and led to the formation of a task force to search for the gunman. In recent weeks, a fourth victim told police they were also shot in Loveland on June 3, less than two miles from where Connole was killed, according to a Sheriff’s Office statement.

Police did not say what they were searching for in Loveland on Thursday or discuss what they recovered. Calls to a spokesman for the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office were not returned.

In the weeks since the Loveland shootings, police have also released a sketch of a “vehicle of interest.” The Sheriff’s Department described the truck as “a 1970s model, full-size single cab Chevrolet or GMC pickup” with faded orange paint and black primer along the driver’s side.

While the shootings in Loveland have stoked fear, police have not said if there is a definitive link between the shootings there and the attacks in Ft. Collins and Windsor. The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in all four shootings.

“The interesting thing is that the FBI still has a reward out for all those cases; they’re not saying they’re all connected, but the reward is out for all those cases,” said Ft. Collins Councilman Ray Martinez, a retired police officer. “That’s telling.”

Linked or not, the gunfire has disturbed life in these low-crime communities.

Days after the first victim, 20-year-old Cori Romero, was shot while driving through Ft. Collins, reports that several car windows had been shattered along Route 25 led to concerns that someone was shooting at motorists on the highway. Police, however, have said there is no evidence the incidents were caused by gunfire or were linked to Romero’s shooting. She survived.

In Windsor, Jacoby’s death marked the city’s first homicide in eight years and led to the cancellation of a popular triathlon.

“The citizenry is still very concerned,” Martinez said.

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