Cop's killer sought

Search under way for gunman who 'ambushed' officers

John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 9, 2005 at midnight

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An intense manhunt stretched through the metro area and late into the night for a gunman who shot two off-duty uniformed police officers in southwest Denver early Sunday, killing a decorated detective and wounding the other.

After a day of interviewing dozens of witnesses and searching the rooftops and shrubs of nearby homes for a weapon, police said the killer remains at large.

The shooting occurred about 1 a.m. outside of Salon Ocampo, a banquet hall at 1733 W. Mississippi Ave. where a large, private baptismal party was concluding.

Detectives Donald R. Young and John H. Bishop were in uniform providing security at the event. While their attention was on the crowd, a gunman came up behind them.

The suspect fired three shots at Young. The gunman then turned and fired at Bishop. Neither officer had a chance to return fire.

Paramedics rushed both officers to Denver Health Medical Center, where doctors declared Young dead at 1:33 a.m., police said. He was 44.

Police have a man in custody on unrelated charges who "may or may not be connected" to the shooting, Police Chief Gerry Whitman said. A juvenile who was taken into custody in Lakewood more than six hours after the slaying is not a suspect, but detectives do want to question the teenager about what he may know about the shooting, police spokesman Sonny Jackson said.

"I don't recall a Denver police officer being ambushed in this manner," Chief Whitman said, noting that the officers did not have a chance to fight back. "I think it is just disgusting."

"I think he (the shooter) is about as dangerous as you can be," Whitman later added. "He ambushed this police officer without warning."

Officers patrolling a long stretch of Federal Boulevard passed out dozens of fliers with a composite sketch of the gunman to cruisers and pedestrians celebrating Cinco de Mayo late Sunday.

Young, a father of two daughters, was a 12-year veteran of the department who had been assigned to the Fugitive and Bomb Squad and the vice and narcotics units.

Bishop, 35, suffered minor wounds and was released from the hospital Sunday morning. Police said that he was wearing a bulletproof vest and that it saved his life. Whitman said he was not sure if Young was wearing a bulletproof vest.

CrimeStoppers has offered a $50,000 reward to anyone providing information that leads to a conviction in the shootings. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers as 720-913-STOP. Witnesses are asked to call 720-913-6911.

Mayor John Hickenlooper called Young's wife Sunday to offer condolences after returning from a conference in Chicago. He vowed an all-out effort to find Young's killer.

"This was cold-blooded murder. And we will not rest until we bring those responsible to justice," Hickenlooper said.

Police officers wore black bands across their badges, and flags outside the city's police stations flew at half-staff.

"It's traumatic for all of us," said Rhonda Jones, commander of District 2 in northeast Denver. "A lot of us were friends of officer Young."

Whitman said the two officers had turned away four men from the party earlier in the evening. The chief said he did not know if that provided a motive for the shootings.

"There were quite a few people there. We're fortunate nobody else was hit," Whitman said.

He said he was not aware of any altercation or words exchanged before the gunfire. "The suspect didn't challenge them; he walked in and shot them."

He said the two police officers were inside the building, one on each side of a door leading into the hall and facing the crowd as people began exiting. The assailant was just outside the door but still within the building, he said.

There were nearly 100 people at the party. Immediately after the shooting, police corralled about 80 witnesses.

Detectives used several RTD buses to shelter witnesses until Spanish-speaking translators from Denver, Lakewood and several other agencies could help interview them.

They also took down the license- plate numbers of cars parked on both sides of the street before letting the drivers go about 3 a.m.

A white balloon with a picture of a dove and the message Feliz Bautismo, Spanish for "Happy Baptism," was still visible on the floor inside the shuttered banquet hall Sunday afternoon.

The chief said that Young had worked the security detail at the hall before and that he thought Bishop also might have worked the location previously.

Two other police officers who were working a security detail across the street from the banquet hall heard the shots and ran to the scene.

They saw a man with a gun who quickly disappeared into the crowd and fled on foot.

Witnesses described the suspect as a stocky male, between 20 and 25 years old, between 5-feet-5-inches and 5-feet-6-inches in height, with extremely short hair and a light moustache. He had a light brown complexion and slightly arched eyebrows. He was wearing a white shirt with sleeves down to his elbows, and khaki or light brown pants. His left arm had a tattoo that had a design but no writing.

In the hours after the shooting, patrol officers established a perimeter, hoping to snare the gunman. They stopped several people and searched one car but came up with no solid leads.

Police took two men in for questioning after stopping them in an automobile within the perimeter. One of them is still being held on unrelated charges, Whitman said.

At about 7:30 a.m. Sunday, police arrested a 17-year-old boy at a Lakewood apartment building at 5275 W. First Ave. He was being held Sunday night at the Mount View Youth Services Center in Jefferson County, said his mother, Maricela Valdez.

Jackson, the police spokesman, said the teen was a "person of interest."

The teen's mother, who attended a dance across the street from Salon Ocampo, said she also was taken in and questioned for about four hours by police. She said that she doesn't know what charges her son is being held on but that he had a court date today.

Valdez said police also impounded two cars belonging to her sons, a Buick Regal and a Honda. She said police confiscated a bloodstained shirt from her 17-year-old son. She also said there was blood in her son's car.

"When they test the blood in the car and the blood on his shirt, that will prove it's his blood and no one else's," Valdez said.

She said her son was bleeding because he was jumped by friends Saturday evening.

The shooting capped a long weekend for the police department. In addition to providing security for Cinco de Mayo celebrations, police also were investigating an unrelated homicide that occurred early Sunday morning near a bar in northwest Denver.

"We've got a lot going on this weekend," Whitman said. "We're stretched to the limit."

Young is the first Denver police officer shot and killed since Bruce VanderJagt died in a shootout with a burglary suspect in 1997.

Sgt. Dave Marker of the fugitive/ bomb squad said it's "not long enough" between the two deaths.

On Sunday morning, two teams of police recruits made their way door to door through the residential neighborhood just north of the crime scene. Using two fire department ladders, they climbed atop roofs and poked through bushes looking for a possible weapon.

"That's their job," said Judy Pacheco, taking a break from gardening to watch the search. "They must do whatever they have to do to find the person who did this, to make him pay for what he did."

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