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Shattered vehicle windows investigated in Denver area

Cars incurred broken windows on E. Hampden Ave. near S. Buckley Road in Aurora in the early hours of Wednesday morning, similar to incidents that have been reported on Interstate-25 in northern Colorado. The drivers each reported that their passenger side window shattered as they drove east along East Hampden Avenue.

DENVER – Police on Wednesday were investigating four cases of shattered vehicle windows in the Denver area that follow a string of broken-window reports in northern Colorado.

The latest three cases were reported on a stretch of road in Aurora between 12:40 a.m. and 3 a.m. Wednesday within about 50 yards of one another. The drivers each reported that their passenger-side window shattered as they drove east along East Hampden Avenue in the suburb east of Denver, police spokeswoman Officer Judy Lutkin said.

On Tuesday around 3:30 p.m., a driver on Interstate 25 in Westminster north of Denver reported that the passenger window of his GMC pickup shattered.

The investigations in both cities are still in their early stages, and investigators haven’t determined what cause the shattered windows.

While Lutkin said it’s probable that the three Aurora cases are linked, she said so far there’s nothing to indicate any connection to the shattered windows reported in Westminster or in Weld and Larimer counties.

A task force has been looking into the cases of shattered windows in northern Colorado as well as three recent shootings, two of them fatal, within about 15 miles of one another. Westminster police have notified the task force, which includes the FBI, of its I-25 broken-window case and will let it know of any evidence that indicates a connection with those in northern Colorado, spokeswoman Cheri Spottke said.

On April 22, Cori Romero, 21, was driving on I-25 near Windsor when her windshield suddenly shattered and she realized she had been shot in the neck. She survived. On May 18, John Jacoby, a Windsor man who worked for the town and got around by bicycle, was found dead along a rural road in town. On June 3, the body of William Connole, a 65-year-old who often took late-night walks through his neighborhood, was found on a sidewalk along a main street in Loveland near his home.

While investigators have linked Romero’s and Jacoby’s shootings, they have not found any “affirmative links” with Connole’s shooting, said Larimer County Sheriff’s Office spokesman David Moore, who also speaks on behalf of the task force.

Since the I-25 shooting, multiple people in Weld and Larimer counties have reported broken vehicle windows, but some of them happened months or several years ago, Moore said.

“Because of the shooting, they thought they should call in and report it,” Moore said.

The task force won’t release total figures of reports, but Moore said some of the shattered windows were found to be caused by road debris. So far, none has been found to have been caused by gunshots.



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