The science behind the attacks
by Dan Campbell
DEBUNKING THE MYTHS
By Garrett Steinke
The summer of 2015 sent the residents of Northern Colorado in a state of fear. The series of six shooting incidents over these warm months had its grips on the interconnected communities of Fort Collins, Windsor and Loveland. The myths surrounding the supposed connections between the six shootings helped spread misinformation about the suspects and the victims of these incidents that had coincidentally occured in the same summer.
After the events and specifically due to the linking of the Jacoby and Romero incidents the myth of “The I-25 sniper” formed in the public perception of the events even with all reports leading to the six shootings being unrelated. The public seemed to believe that any sort of broken windshield or window that occured on I-25 pointed to this mysterious gunman.
For a fast timeline of the events over the summer of 2015, on April 22 Cori Romero, 20, was shot in the neck while turning onto I-25 from Harmony Rd. in Fort Collins and survived the incident. Following this, John Jacoby, 48, was shot twice while riding his bicycle in Windsor. He was then pronounced dead on the scene on May 18. Police eventually linked the Jacoby and Romero cases on May 29, saying it was due to the same caliber of bullet in both shootings. On June 3 William Connole, 65, had been shot and killed in Loveland, and that same night a motorcyclist was shot at but not hit. Then on Sept. 13 a person inside of a red Mini Cooper shot holes in the windows of Banner Health Center and Cottonwood Plains Elementary School in Fort Collins.
There was also concern that it was someone unassociated with any of the shootings with just a BB gun shooting windows on I-25, which could have been possible. “We got a lot of jobs for broken windows and windshields that summer,” said Tammy Olivett, owner of Anders Auto Glass in Fort Collins. “For most of the cars we worked on it was really not possible to tell what caused the door glasses to break because they shattered when broken and for the windshields it was hard to tell if they were hit by rock or bb because the impact looks the same for both.”
The subreddit r/unsolvedmysteries has an extremely large thread posted by the user u/western-son speculating the broken windows to be connected with the series of shootings. The Reddit.com post can be quoted “During this time there were a lot of unexplained window shatterings along the I-25 corridor through the area. In April, around the time Romero was shot, several drivers in the Loveland/Windsor/south Fort Collins area had windows that suddenly shattered as if struck by a bullet.” This along with other sensational blog posts like the right-wing extremist blog thefolliesofdistributism.com post titled “Unknown Gun Nut Terrifies Northern Colorado I 25 - Sniper Shootings! One Dead!”, that shows up on the first page of a quick google search for “I-25 sniper”, is what can misinform the public about the myths surrounding the summer of 2015.
Windsor police chief John Michaels said, “I know there have been a lot of broken windows on I-25, car windows. Those have not been linked to this event.”
Although people piecing together the stories may believe that these shootings are connected, the same firearm was used for Cori Romero and John Jacoby. This firearm was not a BB gun that people think was used for the multiple windows broken. Some residents in Northern Colorado were even unaware of this series of shootings or at most unconcerned. Jonah Sroufe, a Fort Collins resident who has lived in Northern Colorado his whole life said he had “Heard news of it in passing, but no one I knew was really worried about it.”
Nearly a year after the first shooting on April 16, the Northern Colorado Shooting Task Force put out a request for public information and the models of two vehicles of interest that could have been involved with the Connole incident, specifically an orange 1973-1987 pickup. On March 13 Christopher David Parker was arrested for suspicion of 1st degree murder and attempted 1st degree murder for the shots fired at the unnamed motorcyclist and the unsolved murder of WIlliam Connole the night of June, 3, 2015. The police were unable to link Parker to the other four cases.
“You know it’s close contact with the same time frame of our brother’s death. We thought for sure it had to be connected. Unfortunately, it didn’t end up being connected. We wish the Connolle’s well,” said Mark Jacoby, John Jacoby’s brother. “We just want to keep them in our prayers, too, and thoughts. It’s difficult because, on one hand, they were able to get the perpetrator. And at the same time, it’s public information that he (Parker) is unable to stand trial because of his mental capacity.”
While the events of the summer of 2015 the misinformation that surrounds the multiple incidents does much more harm than good. While some can hope for links between the cases there has been no evidence linking the red Mini Cooper or Christopher David Parker with the tragic death of John Jacoby or the attempted attack on Cori Romero. If you have any information regarding any of these cases please contact the Northern Colorado Shooting Task Force.
