Rifle motel fight
A fight in a Rifle motel injured two people and frightened others before police arrived to arrest an armed, inebriated suspect.
Police were called to the motel shortly after 10 p.m. Oct.
23 and interviewed witnesses, who said a man had poured vodka on one woman,
bashed another man’s head against a wall, and threatened two young men.
The suspect, a 30-year-old man, had arrived at a friend’s hotel room drunk and passed out in her bed, according to witness statements. Two other friends of the young woman were there, bringing soup to their friend who was sick.
The woman wanted the suspect to leave, and her friends tried
to wake him.
When he finally woke up. He began “slurring curses” at one
of the women, who asked him to leave. He swore some more, then took a liter of
vodka and poured it all over her. She then threw his coat out the window,
according to arrest documents.
As the suspect headed toward the door, he grabbed one of the
men by the hair and slammed his head against the wall.
The alleged victims were able to get the suspect out of the room, and then headed for the Kum and Go to call the police. On their way, they saw the suspect following dragging a metal object.
Two brothers, unknown to the other parties, were returning to
the motel from the Kum and Go around that time, and the suspect confronted
them, brandishing a shotgun.
The pair got back to their hotel room and had just dialed 911 when police arrived.
The police apprehended the suspect in his own hotel room, and found a loaded 12-gauge shotgun under his bed.
The man was arrested and booked in the Garfield County jail on multiple counts of felony menacing and, possessing a weapon while intoxicated and as a previous, and misdemeanor harassment.
Two caught emptying Parachute storage unit
Parachute police arrested two people for allegedly lifting
thousands of dollars worth of tools and hardware from a storage unit Oct. 25.
The woman who called the police said the owner of the unit
believed someone would try to mess with or take his stuff while he was
traveling to Arizona, and asked her to watch it.
The owner took pictures of a man and a woman in a Pontiac
pulling up to the unit and loading the car.
When police arrived, the female driver of the car said
something to the effect of, “I bet I know what this is about,” the police
officer wrote in arrest documents.
The woman showed the officer a screenshot of a cell phone conversation from a number not listed, telling the recipient to get items from the storage unit.
The car was full of tools, and the woman told the officer
all of it, except for a few items, came from the storage unit.
The man in the car said he had no identification or driver’s license, and gave one name, which the officers later found to be an alias. He also refused to be fingerprinted when first arrested, and refused to talk with police until he’d seen a lawyer.
The woman had active warrants and
a suspended license. Both were arrested and booked in the Garfield County jail.
The following day, the storage
unit owner and police visited the unit, and the owner said many items were
missing.
Police searched the Pontiac that
had been impounded and found $1,400 worth of tools, which the storage unit
owner later identified as his.
After searching a motel room
where the suspects had stayed one night, police found more tools, an electric
money counter, and bolt cutters.
Both were charged with second-degree burglary, possession of burglary tools, and other charges.
