LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A "very volatile" Aurora man who allegedly called the FBI nonstop in February was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a man soliciting along a W. 6th Avenue off-ramp this week, according to an arrest affidavit.
The Lakewood Police Department announced the arrest on Thursday. They said 40-year-old Randy Alan Jiron of Aurora had been arrested as the prime suspect after the fatal shooting of 52-year-old Craig Joseph Bruce, who was walking along the side of the road Tuesday.
An arrest affidavit shed more light on the people who rushed to Bruce's aid and the arrested suspect.
On Tuesday around 7:30 p.m., officers with Lakewood Police Department responded to a report of a man with a gunshot wound near the off-ramp for westbound W. 6th Avenue to Simms Avenue.
When police arrived, they saw West Metro Fire paramedics loading a man into an ambulance. The man was later identified as Bruce. Police determined he had been shot one time in his torso, according to the affidavit.
The responding officers spoke with witnesses at the scene. One, called Witness 1 in this story, said he was behind the suspect vehicle, which he described as an "older rusty red Jeep that was beat up," according to an affidavit. Witness 1 said the suspect's car neared the victim and somebody inside fired multiple gunshots — he was pretty sure it was three — before quickly driving away south on Union Boulevard. The victim fell and Witness 1 pulled up next to him and got out to help.
Witness 1 told police he didn't see any muzzle flashes in the vehicle and did not see what the driver or any passengers looked like.
Another person, Witness 2, said she was stopped at the intersection heading north and heard three gunshots. She said a man standing near the off-ramp collapsed. She described the suspect's vehicle as "a rusty red Jeep" but also did not see the suspect driver, the affidavit reads.
Witness 3 told police she was stopped in the left turn lane for southbound Union Boulevard when she heard multiple gunshots. She then saw a man, who she said "is a panhandler she has seen there before," fall to the ground, according tot he document. She got out of her car to help and saw the man had been shot in his lower torso.
Witness 3 said she didn't see the suspect car.
At the hospital, Bruce was prepped for surgery. Just before, he was able to speak with Lakewood police.
He said he was walking down the road and "was shot out of nowhere," according to the affidavit. He had no idea who had shot him or why. He was then wheeled into surgery.
About 20 medical staff worked to save Bruce's life for two hours.
After the surgery, a detective met with the trauma medical director, who said the bullet had struck Bruce's kidneys, bones and then exited his body. The damage was "extensive" and "he wasn't going to survive much longer but they were keeping him alive so that his family could say goodbye," the affidavit said.
His family was able to spend time with him in the ICU before he passed away at 10:34 p.m.
On Wednesday, the Jefferson County Coroner's Office performed an autopsy and ruled Bruce's death a homicide from a single gunshot wound to the torso.
Officers continued their investigation and began reviewing traffic camera footage from W. 6th Avenue and Simms Street. They found the intersection where Bruce was standing and watched in the video as he walked up and down the off-ramp, appearing to ask for money, according to the affidavit. He was seen walking back up the off-ramp on the south side as the traffic light turned green and vehicles started to move.
"Detectives can see an older model red Jeep slow down next to the vehicle and can see the victim react as if he had been shot," the affidavit reads.
The video also shows two bullet impacts hitting the grass behind Bruce. The driver of the Jeep then turned southbound on Simms Street, got back on the W. 6th Avenue eastbound ramp and headed east on the highway. Detectives noted the red Jeep had a black roof, two dark-colored panels on the hood, a large mud stain behind the front passenger side fender and a horizontal roof rack, the affidavit reads. It did not have a front plate.
Detectives could also see only one person — the driver — in the car.
A Jeep dealer identified the car as a 1997-2001 Jeep Cherokee. Police released a statewide bulletin asking law enforcement agencies to help identify the suspect Jeep and its driver.
Around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, a sergeant and detective with the Parker Police Department called Lakewood police and said they had seen the suspect's vehicle in Parker. The Parker detective noted the Colorado temporary tag on the vehicle and began following it. He could see there was only one person in the car. The detective eventually lost the vehicle near Parker Road and Plaza Drive.
Using the temporary tag, police found the vehicle was registered to Jiron, according to the affidavit.
His name was known to authorities — on Feb. 2, an Aurora officer said Jiron tends to be "very volatile and angers easily. Reports mention suicide by cop. There is concern that if police show up at his residence, it will trigger a hostile response," the affidavit reads. The officer reached out to Jiron after the FBI reported that he was calling them constantly "about hearing voices, having hallucinations, sex slaves, and his cheating ex-girlfriend. Something that was mentioned was someone planning a murder and staging a suicide," the affidavit reads.
About two weeks later, on Feb. 19, the FBI requested that Aurora police contact Jiron after he had allegedly contacted the FBI National Threat Operation Center multiple times the day before with disjointed statements like "Disgusts me, this type of harassment is the cause of mass shootings in this country," "If I want as sane as I am, while the world around me always as if I have a mental illness, I would have already taken the lives of many people," and "They're left to do, but go down a list of people I hear, and take out as many as I can," according to the affidavit.
With this information, Lakewood police went undercover and found the suspect's red Jeep on Pine Bluffs Way in Parker. They saw Jiron walk to the car and leave the area. The affidavit says he was "driving very erratically" but police were able to follow him about 40 miles to Wagner Street in Strasburg, where he entered a garage. Investigators looked up the address and connected it to a Facebook friend of Jiron's.
Lakewood police and the Adams County SWAT team responded to the home and after Jiron surrendered, he was taken into custody, Lakewood police said.
Investigators used Jiron's phone number and requested exigent location data and call detail records from AT&T Wireless for the time of the shooting and the following day. They found multiple pings for the phone that followed Jiron's route from Parker to Strasburg. They also determined that the phone had been moving westbound on W. 6th Avenue around 7:20 p.m. on Tuesday and pinged off a tower at W. 6th Avenue and Simms Street around 7:31 p.m., according to the affidavit.
He is being held at the Jefferson County jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.
Jiron will appear in Jefferson County court on June 29 for return filing of charges.
