In this undated photo provided by the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, Christopher David Parker is shown. Parker faces a first-degree murder charge in the June 3, 2015 shooting of 65-year-old William Connole and an attempted murder charge in the attempted shooting of a motorcyclist the same evening in Loveland, Colo. (Larimer County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
DENVER | Authorities have arrested a man in a 2015 roadside killing in northern Colorado but said Thursday that there is no evidence he is responsible for four other shootings in the region that took place within a six-month span.
Christopher David Parker faces a first-degree murder charge in the June 3, 2015 shooting of 65-year-old William Connole and an attempted murder charge in the attempted shooting of a motorcyclist the same evening in Loveland, Colorado. Parker is being held without bond, and it’s not clear if he has an attorney.
The seemingly random string of shootings between April and September of 2015 unnerved residents and prompted federal, state and local law enforcement to form a task force to investigate. Until Thursday, though, the team had not made an arrest.
Task force members took no questions following the announcement. They did not share what evidence led to Parker’s arrest, though a press release issued by the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said the arrest “was possible because of information received from the public.”
Officials also did not say whether Parker knew Connole or the person driving the motorcycle who was nearly hit by gunfire 15 minutes before Connole. The sheriff’s office statement said forensic evidence links those two shootings.
Larimer County Sheriff Captain Bob Coleman said the task force has cleared more than 12 people who were considered “persons of interest” in the cases and researched more than 14,000 pickup trucks in the surrounding counties that resembled witness descriptions.
“Although this investigation has been wide-reaching and has involved thousands of man hours, we are not finished,” Coleman said.
The unsolved cases include the May 18, 2015 fatal shooting of John Jacoby while he rode his bicycle in Windsor and the April 2015 shooting of a woman while merging her car onto an interstate in Larimer County. The woman survived. Police said forensic evidence links those two cases but authorities don’t believe they are tied to any of the other shootings in the area.
The other unsolved cases focus on gunshots fired into an empty school and a hospital in September 2015. No one was injured in those incidents.
The task force asked anyone with information about the unsolved shootings to contact their tip line.
“If you have wanted to call us but have been hesitant or think it would be a waste of our time, please call,” FBI Special Agent Todd Sandstedt said. “Nothing is a waste of our time when it comes to these investigations.”