Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Friday 3 November 2017
Suspect in Colorado Walmart killings called hostile loner

By P. SOLOMON BANDA laundry in communal ma- Ostrem had minor run-ins
KATHLEEN FOODY chines. with police dating back to
Associated Press “He didn’t seem to have the 1990s, including a De-
THORNTON, Colo. (AP) — anybody,” she said. cember 1999 charge of re-
A man arrested on sus- “Being angry all the time. sisting arrest in Denver that
picion of fatally shooting That’s what he seemed was dismissed the following
three people inside a sub- like, always angry.” year.
urban Denver Walmart Muniz said she sometimes In September 2015, Ostrem
was described Thursday by saw Ostrem carrying a filed for Chapter 7 bank-
neighbors as a hostile loner shotgun or a bow and set ruptcy and listed his in-
who cursed at them and of arrows to and from the come for the previous year
often carried a shotgun building, which faces the as $47,028.00.
in and out of his third-floor back side of a liquor store, He estimated that he more
apartment. a dollar store and a cell- than $85,000 including
Police arrested Scott Os- phone store. credit card debt and said
trem, 37, a day after the Gerald Burnett, a 63-year- he worked as a sheet met-
shooting that killed three old retiree who lives in a al fabricator at a roofing
people following a brief first-floor unit, said he was company in the town of
morning rush-hour chase sitting on the stairs drinking Erie, about 25 miles (45 ki-
in the northern Denver coffee one morning when lometers) north of Denver.
suburb of Thornton several Ostrem came down, told Ostrem had worked for a
blocks from his apartment him to move and cursed at Denver roofing company
building and about 5 miles This Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017 photo released by the Thornton Po- him. until 2014, said Sandra Ru-
(8 kilometers) from the lice Department shows Scott Ostrem, suspected of fatally shoot- “Dude had an attitude, big nyon, an administrative
Walmart. ing several people inside a Thornton, Colo., Walmart Wednes- time,” Burnett said. assistant at Tecta America
Ostrem was handcuffed day night. He was arrested 14 hours following a brief car chase “He’s the type of person if Colorado Commercial
at a crowded intersection that ended at a congested intersection, police said. you said ‘good morning,’ Roofing. Runyon said the
about 14 hours after the (Thornton Police Department via AP) he wouldn’t say nothing. company had had no
shooting, which killed two of Denver; Carlos Moreno, Park Apartments building If you greeted him, he contact with Ostrem since
men and a woman and 66, of Thornton; and Vic- where Ostrem lived de- wouldn’t say anything he left.
sent dozens of shoppers tor Vasquez, 26, of Denver, scribed him as a rude man back. There was no evidence Os-
and workers fleeing in pan- said Adams County Coro- who kept to himself. I just learned not to even trem had ever worked for
ic from the busy store. ner Monica Broncucia-Jor- Most of the building’s ten- talk to the clown.” Walmart, said spokesman
Police spokesman Vic- dan. None were Walmart ants talk to each other, but Thornton, one of Denver’s Ragan Dickens.
tor Avila declined to say employees. renter Teresa Muniz said larger suburbs, is a mostly Witnesses said the shooter
whether Ostrem had a Police did not disclose if Ostrem never returned her blue-collar community walked calmly into the
weapon. they had not determined greetings and swore at where about a third of its Thornton Walmart late
Identified as the victims a motive for the shooting, people for sitting on exte- 136,000 residents identify Wednesday, opened fire
were Pamela Marques, 52, but residents of the Samuel rior stairways and leaving as Hispanic or Latino. and fled.q

Officer invokes victim’s law to withhold name

By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) —
Police won’t release the
name of a North Dakota
officer involved in a shoot-
ing in part because he is
invoking a new law that
expands the rights of crime
victims, a position that
some call a distortion of
the law’s intent.
The officer was attacked
while responding to a call
Oct. 15 at a motel in Bis-
marck. Police said he was
punched in the head re- This photo shows Donald Miller. Miller was shot Oct. 15, 2017, in
peatedly and had his eyes a scuffle with a Bismarck police officer. Police have declined to
gouged before he shot release the name of the officer, in part because he has invoked
51-year-old Donald Miller Marsy’s Law, a recently passed state law that expanded the
in the stomach, wound- rights of crime victims, a position that drew criticism as a distor-
ing him.“(Police officers) tion of the law’s intent. (Burleigh County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
are human beings and get
protections under the law our interpretation.”Jack tim because he is do-
just as every citizen does,” McDonald, an attorney ing what he is supposed
Bismarck Police Chief Dan who frequently represents to do?” McDonald said.
Donlin told The Associated media outlets in the state, Donlin said that’s a bad
Press on Thursday. “We called the interpretation “a argument.“Police officers
have to err on the side of perversion of that Marsy’s do not sign up to be shot
the victim or we violate his Law thing.” and killed or assaulted,” he
constitutional rights. That’s “So a policeman is a vic- said. q