Page 42 - AreaNewsletters "Oct 2021" issue

Did You Know This About the...
Bullet Hole in the Ceiling
of the B&B Cafe
by Lora Thomas
Douglas County Commissioner and former State Patrol O cer assigned to Castle Rock in the 1980’s
But first, another “Castle Rock” Trivia Question:
Who is the Chief of the Castle Rock Fire Department?
(Answer at the end of this article)
LAST MONTH’s column focused on the devasting ash ood in 1933 that caused the Castlewood Canyon Dam to fail and resulted in extensive damage in Denver. Two people lost their lives and was the impetus for building Cherry Creek Reservoir in 1948. Click to read it.
in downtown Denver to see a woman he liked, but she heard he had been dating another girl so she told Perez to leave and never come back. Perez threatened to kill the woman and started ghting with two other men in the house. During the ght, Perez pulled a gun and red it. Denver Police were called, with O cers William Ohruh and Thomas Begley responding. They found that the ght was over, but tempers were still aring. As the o cers tried to determine what had happened, Perez red two shots, felling both
o cers. Perez leaped over both bleeding o cers, ran out of the house, stopping long enough at the doorway to re two more shots at the wounded policemen, striking a table leg by Begley’s head before disappearing into the night.
Numerous detectives responded to the scene and once they determined both o cers were still alive, an ambulance was dispatched to transport the “gravely injured” o cers to Denver General
THIS ISSUE:
T
his month, we
turn to the origins
of the bullet hole
in the ceiling of the
B&B Café, located
at 322 Wilcox Street
in downtown Castle
Rock. I remember when I rst came
to Castle Rock in 1984 as a Colorado State Trooper and learned the story of Marshall Ray Lewis, who lost his life when he encountered a fugitive from Denver. But of course there’s a lot
more to this bit of Castle Rock history, including a second bullet hole behind the counter at the B&B!
This tragic story began
with a ght over a woman on Monday evening, February 11, 1946. Manuel Blanco Perez, 17, went to
a home at 2037 Lawrence
Manuel Perez
42
October 2021 • Castle Rock “AreaNewsletters”
CASTLE ROCK HISTORY