Neighbors witnessed an 'unnerving' sight

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 11, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.

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Photo by Linda McConnell / Special to the Rocky

Arthur Nardone demonstrates on Monday how a man had huddled by a transformer near his home early Sunday. Nardone and his wife believe that the man they saw was the shooter who killed two people and injured two others at Youth With A Mission.

Arthur Nardone heard "five or six pops" early Sunday morning as he and his wife were sleeping.

Their house backs onto the parking lot of the Youth With A Mission Colorado Center.

"My wife got up, looked out at the building and saw someone walk across the parking lot toward our house," Nardone said.

They both watched as the man they believe to be the shooter who killed two people and wounded two others at the YWAM center tramped through the snow on the berm that separates the parking lot from their backyard.

The man, dressed in dark clothing, crouched behind the Nardones' olive tree, which shields a transformer and pumping station for the adjacent lake.

"He was on all fours behind the transformer and kind of looked back at the building," Nardone said. That first glance "was when we first thought he might be involved with something bad going on over there."

The man then started walking west along the trail that circles the lake south of the Nardones' home. Then he changed his mind and walked east, then south as the Nardones lost sight of him.

"We called the police," Nardone said. "Unfortunately, once you start walking that way around the lake, there are plenty of places to exit where no one would see you."

"It was pretty unnerving," Nardone said. "My wife couldn't sleep after that. She was pretty shaken up."

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