Patterico's Pontifications

10/13/2008

Shooting in Grand Junction CO

Filed under: Crime — DRJ @ 4:18 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Saturday morning there was a shooting in Grand Junction, Colorado, that resulted in two deaths (plus the apparent shooter, who committed suicide) and left two people seriously wounded. Sadly, there are many violent deaths in America but there aren’t many that involve apparently random shootings of multiple persons.

According to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:

“Mike and Flo Gallagher and Terry and Linda Fine were leaving Saturday morning for a vacation together when a 22-year-old Lakewood man with no apparent ties to the Grand Valley shot and killed Terry Fine, 61, and Flo Gallagher, 60, at the Fines’ home at 2631 Chestnut Drive, said acting Grand Junction Police chief Troy Smith.”

Terry Fine was a prominent Grand Junction dentist and Mike Gallagher is a former college President who currently teaches at the community college. Flo Gallagher had recently retired as a high school teacher. Their neighbor, Paco Larsen, heard the shots and came outside to help where he was shot in the neck. Larsen has been released from the hospital with a bullet lodged near his spine. Terry Fine’s wife Linda remains hospitalized.

The suspect, Stefan Alexander Martin-Urban, was a 22-year-old Alaska native who the Denver Post identified as a 2005 graduate from a Fairbanks, Alaska, high school. He had recently moved to the Denver area from Los Angeles:

“The 22-year-old spent time in the Los Angeles area, living in a motel in Riverside County, public records show. He had come to stay with an aunt in Lakewood a few weeks ago, police said Sunday afternoon.”

Police said Stefan apparently drove to the Grand Junction area from Lakewood on Friday morning – a distance of at least 270 miles – but it’s not known what he did from that point until the shooting Saturday morning.

All crime, especially violent crime, is traumatic but there is something especially troublesome about premeditated random crime like this.

— DRJ

18 Responses to “Shooting in Grand Junction CO”

  1. It will be interesting to see what the tox-screen shows from the autopsy. Absent drugs of some sort, this makes absolutely no sense.

    BTW, did they mention what mind-altering form of firearm he used?

    Another Drew (1d7115)

  2. From the GJ Daily Sentinel:

    “… he fired more than a dozen shots, reloading his 9 mm pistol at least once, in the Fines’ driveway.
    ***
    Smith said investigators believe Martin-Urban was carrying ammunition and spare magazines in a navy blue canvas grocery bag at the time of the shooting.”

    Police also said they do not think the gun was stolen and are working with ATF to track down where it was purchased.

    DRJ (c953ab)

  3. Very weird. I didn’t know the guy who did the shooting, but did know his late father. He was a great guy, very involved w/kids, coached youth soccer, always seemed in a good mood . . . I don’t know what would have prompted the kid to wig out like that, but I doubt this is one that can be blamed on the parents.

    Tom in AK (1720ac)

  4. Would you please stop posting these stories from Colorado, one of the most irrelevant states in the union?

    Official Internet Data Office (ec4069)

  5. I used to go to Grand Junction with my wife on weekends, when we had to get away from the ridiculous surroundings of Aspen and Snowmass, where we lived less than two years. A complete world apart, the people were quite normal and pleasant, but the town still had a funky vibe to it. Too sad.

    Dmac (cc81d9)

  6. Waiting for the trolls from the left to note that both the alleged shooter and Sarah Palin are from Alaska.

    Old Coot (b63ab3)

  7. Alaska Independence Party! Alaska Independence Party!

    (channelling my inner moonbat troll)

    fat tony (f86b83)

  8. Tom in AK,

    It’a a tragic story and I feel as bad for Stefan’s family as for the victims. It’s easy to imagine that the death of Stefan’s father may have something to do with this.

    DRJ (c953ab)

  9. and I feel as bad for Stefan’s family as for the victims

    Maybe I’m just a mean son-of-a-bitch, but my sympathy for the guy’s family isn’t anywhere close to my sympathy for the families of the victims…

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  10. Wasn’t Colorado where the guys in Dumb and Dumber were going?

    Frank Drackman (af2a6b)

  11. Has David Neiwert posted a right wing conspiracy theory on this yet?

    daleyrocks (d9ec17)

  12. Scott,

    I understand but there’s no indication his family had anything to do with this or saw it coming. That may change as the facts come out, but part of the tragedy here is the mystery of why it occurred.

    DRJ (c953ab)

  13. I don’t want to drag politics into this, but what with the market crisis and the election coming up, I felt like we would be seeing some mass shootings. People in general are on edge. Crazy people, even more so, naturally.

    Daryl Herbert (4ecd4c)

  14. Comment by Daryl Herbert — 10/13/2008 @ 7:22 pm

    Yes, but why gun down two couples off for an outing?
    Wouldn’t you do more for society if you committed a mass shooting in a news room?

    Another Drew (1d7115)

  15. Wouldn’t you do more for society if you committed a mass shooting in a news room?

    I’d make a comment about Shakespear, and lawyers, but considering the occupations of our host and others, I shall refrain. 🙂

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  16. A totally random shooting like this happened almost a year ago in my town Simi Valley CA. A man walked into an auto repair shop shot a women outside waiting in her car and killed her and then went into the business trying to kill the employees before killing himself. Happend right around the corner from where i used to work.

    Tom K (384020)

  17. What the hell kind of dickweed would say anyone,anywhere,who got killed by some retard who must have the wrong address(DUH)was irrelevant because of the state in which the crime occurred. All of the victims were good people and good friends of my family.Colorado had nothing to do with this crime.

    Frankie (aedfae)

  18. Looks to me like the Alaskan drifter thought he was going to jayhawk a couple of old timers and take up living in their digs for awhile.

    This isn’t anything new. It happened all the time duing the Depression: folks just wanderin’ here and there, and taking what they needed.

    Could be a sign of things to come.

    steveaz (9930b4)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0903 secs.