DENVER — A 16-year-old boy exited a stolen vehicle and then fired shots through the driver's side window of another vehicle that was parked at the gas pump in Denver earlier this month, according to records obtained by 9NEWS.
On Wednesday, Denver Police announced that the 16-year-old and a 31-year-old Simon Eugene Elijah Gurule were arrested in connection with the June 8 shooting that left a man dead and a woman injured.
Both are being held on suspicion of first-degree murder and suspicion of attempted first-degree murder.
According to Denver Police, Manuel C. Luque Quintana, 29, and a woman were sitting in a car at a Sinclair gas station located at West 5th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard. The suspects pulled in a stolen Jeep Compass and the passenger got out and fired into the parked vehicle through the driver's side window and then got back into the passenger seat. After the shooting, according to a probable cause statement from Denver Police, the driver left the parking lot and headed east on 5th Avenue.
A witness at the gas station said the passenger was armed with a rifle. The witness also reported that a woman who was in the victim's vehicle got out after the shooting, gathered belongings, and walked away.
That woman was later located near West 5th Avenue and Zenobia Street. She was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to a hospital for treatment, the PC statement says. Quintana died from his injuries.
The next day police got a tip from someone saying identifying the 16-year-old as being involved in the shooting.
They also received an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip. The caller reported they were walking on 5th Avenue east of Sheridan when they heard "pops" and then saw a newer white or silver SUV speed past them and then turn right on Tennyson Street. The caller said the vehicle had a red vanity plate and said they were confident the first three letters on the plate were ALA.
Using the Flock Safety License Plate Reader database police searched for silver vehicles with license plates starting with AL. A silver Jeep Compass came up which had a red license plate. It was seen in the area of 6th and Knox about 18 minutes before the shooting. That vehicle matched the description of the suspect's vehicle.
That same day police took a report of a suspicious occurrence. The person reported that that night before, on June 8, he saw a security video showing a man wearing gloves wiping down the trunk of a vehicle and then abandoning it. Officers arrived there and found a 2018 silver Jeep Compass with a red license plate. Police also noted the time stamp on the footage showing the person abandoning the vehicle was just about an hour after the shooting.
Police compared photos of the 16-year-old suspect to security video from the shooting scene and the scene where the vehicle was abandoned and said they believed they were all the same person.
On June 17, detectives retrieved a black iPhone from evidence collected from the shooting scene. They noted that security video from the gas station showed the injured passenger holding a black phone when she got out of the vehicle and left the scene. Police looked at the number called before or after the shooting and noted that one of them belonged to Gurule.
A call was made to him at 6:23 p.m., which was directly before the shooting. The PC statement says ShotSpotter technology picked up gunfire at 6:25 p.m. The phone showed a call was made to Gurule two minutes later.
Police learned that Gurule had a long criminal history and was on parole. As a condition of that parole, he was required to wear a GPS ankle monitor. That GPS data put him at the location of the shooting at the time it occurred.
Investigators are still working to find out the motive behind the shooting, police said.
Gurule is being held on a $1 million cash-only bond, according to court records.
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