Colorado bank robber throws cash in air, shouting ‘Merry Christmas’

Colorado bank robber throws cash in air, shouting ‘Merry Christmas’
By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) – A man with a white beard was being held on $10,000 bond for allegedly robbing a Colorado bank and throwing the stolen cash into the air while shouting, “Merry Christmas” to passersby, police and local media reported on Tuesday.

David Wayne Oliver, 65, was arrested at a nearby Starbucks coffee shop after he held up the Academy Bank in Colorado Springs on Monday afternoon, according to a police report.

Police said the suspect had “threatened the use of a weapon” and left the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash.

A police spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment, but Colorado Springs television station KKTV reported that eyewitness Dion Pascale recounted Oliver stepped outside the bank and tossed the money “all over the place.”

“He started throwing money out of the bag” before yelling, “Merry Christmas,” the TV station quoted Pascale as saying.

Pascale said bystanders retrieved some of the money and returned it to the bank as Oliver walked to the Starbucks, sat down and appeared to be waiting for police to arrest him, KKTV reported.

The Denver Post quoted police as saying “thousands of dollars” remained unaccounted for, adding there was no indication Oliver used a weapon in the heist.

Oliver, pictured in police mug shots with gray-and-white hair and a full white beard, is being held at the El Paso County jail and is set to make his first court appearance on Thursday, jail records showed. It was not clear from the records if he has an attorney.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Osterman)

Colorado man deemed unfit for state court in abortion clinic shooting faces federal charges

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) – A man deemed mentally unfit to face trial in state court for a shooting spree that killed three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado was indicted on Monday on federal charges stemming from the 2015 rampage, U.S. prosecutors said.

The homicide charges contained in both the state and federal indictments are capital offenses, but prosecutors have yet to determine whether they would seek the death penalty if the defendant were convicted.

Robert Lewis Dear, 61, was taken into federal custody early on Monday at the State Mental Hospital in Pueblo, Colorado, where he has been confined under court order for four years, and appeared later in the day before a U.S. magistrate judge in Denver.

But the hearing was postponed until Friday after Dear, a onetime self-employed art dealer, told the judge he wanted to represent himself, Denver television station KMGH reported.

As he has during previous proceedings, Dear ranted in federal court about abortion and the selling of body parts. “I am not crazy, I’m just a religious zealot,” the TV station quoted him as saying.

Dear was originally charged with multiple counts of murder and dozens of additional offenses in the shooting at the Colorado Springs clinic that killed a U.S. military veteran, a mother of two small children and a police officer. Nine others were wounded in the five-hour siege.

In courtroom outbursts, Dear said he was guilty and proclaimed himself “a warrior for the babies,” prompting a state judge to order a mental evaluation that led to him being declared incompetent to stand trial.

An appeals court in January upheld the state’s authority to forcibly medicate Dear in an effort to restore his fitness for prosecution, but the case has remained in legal limbo.

With a statute-of-limitations deadline looming on some federal charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver decided to seek its own indictment, containing 65 counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, plus three counts of using a firearm in an act of violence resulting in murder.

The indictment alleges Dear went to the Planned Parenthood clinic in November 2015 armed with an arsenal of rifles and handguns with the intent to wage “war” because the center provided abortion services.

El Paso County District Attorney Dan May, the state prosecutor in the case, said his office supported the federal indictment and intended to eventually move forward with its case separate from U.S. court proceedings.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Additional reporting by Maria Caspani in New York; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Peter Cooney)

Colorado deputy, suspect killed, four others wounded

Deputy Micah Flick, who was shot and killed in the line of duty, appears in a handout photo provided by the El Paso County Sheriff's Office in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. February 5, 2018.

(Reuters) – A Colorado sheriff’s deputy and a suspect were killed and four others, including three law enforcement officers, were wounded on Monday in a shooting that sprang from an auto theft investigation, officials said.

Officers from three Colorado agencies investigating an auto theft were confronted by a man at an apartment complex in Colorado Springs about 4 p.m., Colorado Springs Police Chief Pete Carey said at a press conference. A civilian was among the injured, he said.

Witnesses told KRDO-TV, an ABC affiliate in Colorado Springs, that around 15 shots were fired, but that was not confirmed by law enforcement officials.

A deputy from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department, Micah Flick, 34, was killed, Sheriff Bill Elder said at the press conference. Elder said that Monday was the 11th anniversary of Flick’s hiring at the sheriff’s department. He has a wife and seven-year-old twins.

Carey said one officer of the Colorado Springs Police Department was in surgery on Monday night and in stable condition.

Flick is the third Colorado sheriff’s deputy killed in the past five weeks.

Last month, a 22-year-old man was charged with the murder of Adams County Deputy Sheriff Heath Gumm, 31, who was gunned down after he and other deputies responded to reports of an assault near the city of Thornton, about 10 miles north of Denver.

That followed a New Year’s Eve standoff near Denver that led the death of a Douglas County Sheriff’s deputy in a suburb where four other deputies and two civilians were also shot.

The nonprofit National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund said that 128 law enforcement officers were killed on the job in 2017.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale and Chris Kenning in Chicago)

Out Of Control Fire Threatens Colorado Springs

Over 15,000 acres of land has burned in central Colorado as an out of control wildfire is threatening the city of Colorado Springs. The fire doubled in size overnight.

Over 800 firefighters are fighting the blaze which is considered only 5% contained. Much of the city is under a mandatory evacuation order due to the threat. The US Air Force Academy has also been evacuated due to the smoke and fire. Continue reading