Brian Lucero has been identified as the victim of a fatal stabbing in the parking lot of Torchy’s Tacos, near the intersection of 11th and Broadway early on May 23. His alleged killer, Christian Gulzow, a Denver-area death metal singer with a substantial criminal record, has been arrested in the death of Lucero, a transient whose fate is evidence of the dangers regularly faced by members of the homeless community.
The man identified by Denver police as Christian Gulzow, the suspect in the fatal stabbing of Brian Lucero in the Torchy’s Tacos parking lot early on May 23, is known online as both Christöf Gülzow and Nürüm Bellüm, a death metal vocalist. His various social media platforms feature multiple images of him with white makeup and gloves with long tips of the sort allegedly worn by the killer in the case, and a video on his Instagram account includes violent and bloody knifings.
Christian Gulzow, 36, has been arrested in what the Denver Police Department has now confirmed was a homicide that took place early this morning near the Torchy’s Tacos branch at 1085 Broadway. According to the probable cause statement, accessible below, Gulzow wore white, clown-like make-up and was wearing gloves that recall those associated with fictional ghoul Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street horror-film series.
Organizers of the Denver 420 Rally have been prohibited from applying for a Denver event permit for three years as a result of complaints about security and clean-up issues at this year’s edition, and their priority status with the city was rescinded. That pleases Colorado Christian University educator Jeff Hunt, the former marijuana user who spearheaded a petition to ban it.
Even as Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to say terrible things about marijuana and hint at a potential crackdown against states that have approved recreational or medical sales, assorted members of Congress have introduced legislation aimed at changing the way the federal government deals with the plant, including its designation as a Schedule I narcotic by the Drug Enforcement Administration. But there’s disagreement among national leaders of the cannabis community about whether it would be preferable to shift marijuana to Schedule II or Schedule III, or to de-schedule it entirely.
Aaron Thompson, who was convicted in 2009 of child abuse resulting in death and more in regard to his daughter, Aaroné, despite the fact that her body was never found, has lost his latest attempt to gain his freedom. The Colorado Court of Appeals narrowly rejected his argument that he’d been unconstitutionally prevented from using the lawyer of his choice.
The 2017 County Health Rankings for Colorado vividly show the relationship between health and money. The Colorado counties that scored best in the report tend to be the most affluent, while the ones that finished toward the bottom of the roster are typically poorer. But there are exceptions to this rule, as witnessed by Denver winding up near the back of the pack when it comes to the CHR’s two main metrics.
Stacy Rewitzer and Jo Roby, a pair of flight attendants for Frontier Airlines, are at the center of a federal complaint that accuses the carrier of discriminating against them and their colleagues by not providing adequate accommodations related to pregnancy and breastfeeding, with one plaintiff maintaining that a representative of the carrier told her she’d have to wait approximately ten hours in order to express breast milk. The charges arrive one year after the filing of a similar lawsuit on behalf of four Frontier pilots.
Today’s departure of Tom Green from the CW2 morning show Daybreak and the hubbub over the awkward nature of CBS4 weather man Ed Greene’s slow retirement announcement are the latest reminders that longtime personalities at news stations in Denver and across the country are increasingly considered to be expendable. Falling revenues and shrinking audiences have resulted in cost-cutting that regularly leads to the vanishing of big local stars, as exemplified by news of 9News sportscaster Drew Soicher’s disappearance late last year and station anchor Adele Arakawa’s impending exit in June. Which leads to the inevitable question: Who’s next?
Shortly after the Denver Post revealed plans to move its newsroom out of Denver to Adams County, the newspaper is ending and rebranding Denver Post TV, an ambitious effort to regularly create television-news style segments intended to compliment and enhance its reporting. The Post has also parted company with Molly Hughes, a former CBS4 anchor hired in 2014 as the public face of the project. But editor Lee Ann Colacioppo stresses that the move shouldn’t be interpreted as the Post abandoning the visual side of news.
Indivisible Denver, a collective formed to oppose the agenda of President Donald Trump and hold local officials accountable, has undergone a division of its own. Co-founder Eric Shumake, who recently told us about weekly protests against Senator Cory Gardner dubbed the Sunday Gardner, has split off from numerous ID members who are now part of a separate outfit.
The Denver Police Department has launched a series of videos intended to reveal myths about sex offenders in the Mile High City. Detective David Bourgeois, who stars in the clips, provided Westword with additional details about myths exposed in the first installment, on view below, and previews future episodes, revealing, for example, that not every registered sex offender can be found online.
A new lawsuit filed against DaVita, a kidney-dialysis giant that’s among the most prominent companies based in Denver, echo some of the allegations in a scorching exposé of the firm and the industry by HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The complaint, one of two collective actions being pressed on behalf of past and present DaVita employees, claims that clinics are severely understaffed and the assembly line pace of care that’s maintained in an effort to maximize profits exploits workers and endangers patients’ lives.
This week, Officer John Adsit is officially retiring from the Denver Police Department because of injuries he sustained after being hit by a car while working crowd control during a December 2014 protest about a grand jury decision in the death of Ferguson, Missouri resident Michael Brown. The damage Adsit sustained was so horrific that despite countless hours of rehab and more than two dozen surgeries, he was only able to return to the job for about a week or so over the approximately 29 months that followed.
A home-bidding tactic known as the escalation clause is currently ubiquitous in Denver’s red hot housing market. But while the clause may give buyers a better chance to land the home of their dreams, a local broker says buyers can wind up financially over their heads if they don’t use it very carefully.
Sean Crumpler, who pleaded guilty in March to multiple sex-trafficking counts related to underage boys living at what’s been characterized as an orgy house, has now been sentenced to fifty years in prison. In asking for this lengthy punishment, prosecutors rejected any suggestion that Crumpler was taking part in an acceptable alternative lifestyle, and so did the judge in the case, who branded his actions “despicable.”
Denver’s Ben Higgins, who gave up on a potential run for the state legislature over pressure from the producer of a reality TV series intended to build on the popularity he’d gained during his season starring in ABC’s The Bachelor, has broken up with Lauren Bushnell, his fiancee and co-star on both shows, including Ben and Lauren: Happily Ever After?
Longtime CBS4 weather forecaster Ed Greene is transitioning into a part-time role at the station, where he’s worked since 1981, with Lauren Whitney poised to replace him on the outlet’s highest-profile newscasts. But a station source tells Westword that what was portrayed by the Denver Post as a brusque dumping was actually a deliberate process negotiated over the course of a year with the full cooperation of Greene, whose evident displeasure over the plan left management feeling blindsided.
The latest development in dueling lawsuits between former KYGO personality David Mueller and pop star Taylor Swift over an alleged butt groping incident prior to a June 2013 concert at Denver’s Pepsi Center involves a court fight over Swift’s desire to use testimony from CU Boulder associate professor and gender studies expert Lorraine Bayard de Volo. According to a motion recently filed by the DJ’s legal team, Bayard de Volo “intends to opine that Mr. Mueller had the profile of a person likely to sexually assault women.”
Doug Robinson, the latest hopeful to announce for the 2018 Colorado governor’s race, is the nephew of Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and the 2012 Republican candidate for president. But Robinson is optimistic that his experience in the technology industry, his passion for issues such as education and his status as a political outsider will help him top the better-known candidates with whom he’s competing.
College coed Philippa “Pippa” McCully’s lawsuit claims that she was badly injured during a bizarre excessive-force episode at the El Paso County jail and then refused medical treatment for a knee injury severe enough to startle the team doctor for the Miami Dolphins. Video of the incident appears to confirm much of McCully’s account. But her attorney says the case has dragged on for more than a year in part because it took place during the administration of former El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, a lawsuit defendant whose recent indictment on felony charges that include extortion and official misconduct arising from an alleged sex scandal involving at least three employees has complicated the situation immeasurably.
The main report in Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’s May 14 episode tore into the kidney dialysis industry, with a particular focus on Denver-based DaVita, a company the HBO host said owes an apology to Taco Bell because of CEO Kent Thiry’s comparisons between his firm’s business practices and the approach of the fast food giant.
