LOVELAND, Colo. — The man who is in custody in connection with a homicide in Loveland was free after posting a $250 cash bond related to his arrest for a separate incident in Loveland last month.
Just before 7 p.m. Friday, officers received a call for a welfare check in the 3700 block of Foothills Drive, according to Loveland Police. The caller reportedly said she was worried something had happened to her mother and that she could not get ahold of her.
When police arrived at the home, they found a man identified as 30-year-old Michael Fuller. Officers then noticed a woman lying on the floor inside while trying to get Fuller to step outside the residence to speak with them.
Officers then entered the home, confirmed the woman was dead, and took Fuller into custody. The coroner identified the victim as 71-year-old Toni Fuller. An autopsy found that she died from blunt and sharp force injuries. Her death was ruled a homicide.
Court records obtained by 9NEWS indicate that Toni Fuller is Michael Fuller's mother. Her husband filed for a protection order for both of them in June 2022 and wrote that their son Michael Fuller was into drugs and alcohol and said when he used those substances he became physically abusive.
He also wrote that "threats of violence is always there," and said he installed door locks on their bedrooms.
Fuller was booked into the Larimer County Jail on the following charges, the release said:
- First-degree murder
- Tampering with physical evidence
- Violation of a protection order
He's being held on a $10 million cash-only bond related to the homicide case.
On its Facebook page, Loveland Police posted about the prior incident involving Fuller. According to the post, on Oct. 9 officers responded to Namaqua Park around 3 p.m. for a report that a man was threatening a woman. The woman said she took her dog to the park to walk by the river and was near the water's edge when the man began yelling at her.
When officers arrived they found the man in the water and the victim also in the water standing about 15 away, the post says.
The woman said the man asked her for a cigarette and became angry and began yelling at her when she said she didn't have one. She went on to say that he threatened to kill her and her dog and threw a beer bottle and a large rock at them which forced her to retreat into knee-deep water.
She said she tried to get away but didn't want to leave behind her dog, which she described as "elderly" and "disabled." When the man got closer she said she sprayed pepper spray toward his face.
Officers asked the man multiple times to get out of the water but appeared "intoxicated" and was slow to comply, the post says. They attempted to use a remote restrain device on him but the initial attempt didn't work. They tried a second time and then got into a physical fight with the man in the water.
At one point, the Facebook post says the man grabbed onto an officer’s neck and attempted to pull him under water. A different officer suffered a "minor" injury during the arrest, according to the post.
The man was later identified as Fuller.
Court records show that Fuller is charged with multiple counts including second-degree assault on a peace officer, felony menacing, and resisting arrest for the Oct. 9 incident.
The records show his bond at $250 and he was released after posting that on Oct. 14.
The district attorney's office said on its Facebook page, said the Loveland Police Department did not make them aware of all the details of the incident prior to the bond hearing. They indicated if they had been aware of the "full facts" their bond argument would have changed.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call Loveland Police Department Tip Line at 970-962-2032 or Larimer County Crime Stoppers at 970-221-6868.