LAKEWOOD, Colo. — An Aurora man accused of shooting and killing a man who was panhandling in Lakewood was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison last week.
Randy Jiron, 42, was convicted in the murder of 52-year-old Craig Bruce. Bruce was soliciting on the side of the road on the northbound off-ramp of 6th Avenue and Simms Street in June 2023 when someone in a Jeep drove up and shot him, police said. He later died at a hospital.
Before being taken into surgery, Bruce told officers he was walking down the road and "was shot out of nowhere," an arrest affidavit says. He told police he had no idea who shot him or why, and "did not mention having an argument or physical altercation with anyone."
Police used witness accounts, traffic camera footage and cell phone records to connect Jiron and his Jeep to the area of the shooting.
The day after the shooting, police spotted the Jeep in Parker. Undercover Lakewood officers followed Jiron from Parker to a home in Strasburg, where he was taken into custody. The affidavit says the home belonged to one of Jiron's Facebook friends.
According to the affidavit, law enforcement had most recently contacted Jiron in February 2023 when the FBI asked Aurora police to contact him "following multiple phone calls to the F.B.I National Threat Operation Center the prior day." Jiron had made statements about mass shootings and a comment referring to "take out as many as I can," according to the affidavit.
Aurora police had also contacted Jiron earlier that month when they were called to his home for a mental health crisis, according to the affidavit. After that contact, an officer noted "At past contact with Randy, he tends to be very volatile and angers easily. Reports mention suicide by cop. There is concern that if police show up at his residence, it will trigger a hostile response," according to the affidavit.
A jury found Jiron guilty on Friday of first-degree murder and immediately sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Previous reporting by Darren Whitehead and Angela Case contributed to this article.
