Police in Aurora are looking for
a missing 10 year old tonight.
Aurora police say Hezekiah
Pope left a friend's house this
afternoon and did not return ho.
10 year old was last seen at a e
on Granby Street near Chambers
and Green Valley Ranch Blvd.
Is a little bit before 4:00
o'clock this afternoon.
Hezekiah was wearing a multi
colored army style jacket,
black shirt with Red Riding and blue pants.
If you have seen this young
man you were asked to call,
9116 students at Denver's
North High School should be
preparing for final papers,
tests and graduations tonight.
Their families gathered
to remember them instead.
Since this time last year,
North's principal says the
school has lost six kids,
some to suicide and some to gun violence.
Tonight, 9 News reporter Cole Sullivan
brings us the story of kids, guns and
loss from one family's perspect.
He called it Bebop. We.
I called her. Yeah, fell cruel.
Laney, Bug Lala. A girl of many names,
but just one smile. Luckily,
I was able to capture those pictures of her.
This is Elena Martinez at the st
of her senior year at North Hig.
She never made it to graduation.
I don't condone the fact that
we were partying, you know,
like while there was guns, you ?
Not like we weren't watching or anything.
Her sister Selma brought Elena
to a house party last fall.
We just hear some commotion
outside as they prepared to lea.
A drive by shooting ripped
their mom's world apart.
You know, that was eight kids that were hurt.
And Lena was the only one who d,
was murdered.
So Desiree Martinez didn't know.
I'm sure we were hiding things m
our parents and we were that ag,
but we had no idea that's how it was.
Out there with all these kids carrying
guns and it's they're not toys.
She didn't know this kind of heartbreak.
We just miss. I just miss her.
We just miss her. Dad. Vince.
I mean, I need, I need more.
I need more progress, man.
I need, I need to know somethin.
Didn't know this kind of frustration.
Getting the guns off the street, man.
We got to figure out how to do .
Selma didn't know this kind of regret.
I'm upset even with myself for being naive,
you know, cuz even though we were watching.
Like, it's just not right.
But mostly,
the family didn't know a missing
smile could cause this kind of .
So now we're have to figure
this new life out.
Without her,
it's a struggle.
Sure,
Elena would have turned 18 tomo.
The Adams County Sheriff's Office says it
has several people of interest in this case,
but it's waiting for some evidee
to come back from the lab before
detectives can move forward.
There is a $5000 Crime Stoppers Reward. Calls
just are breaking to think about
what's happened to that family d
to know how many families in our
community are in that position.w
many other families just at North High
School? Six students in the last year. All
right, Cole Sullivan, thank you.
It was a classic spring day in Colorado.
Perfectly nice until those
ominous clouds rolled on.
In Some spots are rain.
Others dealt with strong winds,
picking up a ton of dirt and du.
It was bad enough to trigger a
ground stop at DIA this afterno.
The storms are moving
out of the state tonight.
Danielle's tracking another mosy
sunny day for the metro area wih
some thunderstorm action for the
foothills in Eastern Plains.
We'll check in with her in a few minutes.
911 dispatchers in Adams Countye
tracking emergencies by hand toy
after a cyber attack took down their systems.
The Adams County Sheriff's Office says
the malware attack happened this morning.
911 dispatchers can still take the calls,
but they're tracking the incidents on paper.
The Sheriff's Office says some l
computer systems went down as w.
They're working with the FBI
to investigate the attack.
For the second day in a row,
deputies in Douglas County tolde
neighborhood to lock down whiley
search for people who got into a
shootout in the middle of the street.
Today, deputies came back to the area
southeast of Park Meadows Mall r
Inverness Parkway in South Jamaica St.
Deputies say that a man on the sidewalk
and someone in a dark colored sn
shot at each other yesterday afternoon.
Driver took off.
The man got into another vehicl.
Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Today they came back with a seah
warrant tied to the shooting,
and they told neighbors to
stay inside just in case.
We're told they have not arrested anyone yet.
The Colorado Supreme Court will
soon decide just how wide of a
net police can cast when they're
searching for evidence online.
The court heard arguments today about
the search tactic that was used to find
the suspects in deadly house fi.
Five members of the Joel family
died in the fire at their home n
Green Valley Ranch back in 2020.
Police use Google to help solve the case.
They went to the company and asd
Google to share the names of ale
people who search for that home's address.
That led them to arrest the three teenagers.
The lawyers for one of them,
Gavin Seymour,
argued that that search was so
broad it was unconstitutional.
That's what this case boils dow,
the absence of probable cause to search.
Mr. Seymour, I think that
the technology here is novel,
but the search really isn't,
and this was a very narrow requt
for a very specific set of acco.
Previously, a judge in Denver agreed with
prosecutors that the tactic was legal.
The Supreme Court is expected to share
its decision within the next few months.
Five people are suing the Fort Collins
Police Department after the same officer
arrested them wrongfully on suspicion
of driving under the influence.
All of their cases were dismiss.
Smell a faint odor of alcohol
coming from your breath,
The lawsuit claims Jason Heffern
made more DUI arrests in one year than
anyone else in the department's history,
something attorneys say
should have been a red flag.
An internal investigation foundt
least nine cases in less than a year.
Where the people say half a man arrested
had blood test that came back c.
He resigned before he could be fired.
The five people suing the depart
say they want an apology for the damage
that extended beyond the arrest.
There's the the financial
strain of everything.
The emotional strain is much mo.
When I came home the morning of
my friend's funeral that I was
speaking at Child Protective Services
showed up to my house to do an
interview with my children and.
It just compounded a lot of the emotions.
The level of dishonesty,
corruption and vile behavior
from that officer defies words.
The plaintiffs are also asking e
department to pay for their lost wages
while Dean dealing with the DUI cases.
They also want to see the depart
add training for officers.
While Denver school leaders fams
figure out what kind of safety
changes they want for next year,
the district has to estimate how
much those changes will cost.
The first guess? About $9 milli.
9 News reporter Jennifer Meckels is here
to walk us through this potential bill.
So tonight, Kyle, the district's
finance team gave the school bod
a budget presentation for next .
Very exciting, I know,
but if you're making changes,
you have to pay for it.
And those conversations start n.
We got our first look at
the safety plan on Monday.
It recommends middle and high schools
decide for themselves if they wt
armed Denver officers in their schools.
It also talks about weapons detection
systems and building safety aud.
This plan will not be finalized until June,
but how do you budget now for i?
A best guess, That's what you do today.
The budget team recommended $4 million
for the general from the general fund
to pay for whatever recommendats
come out of the safety plan,
like campus safety officers
or mental health supports.
The proposal also calls for $5 million
from the 2020 bond for capital needs.
So if the safety plan is going o
call for building improvements,
I
just wouldn't be humble. But th,
I don't know the 9 millions right now.
It's a big number. It's the bigt
investment we've ever had safety
in in a single budget. But I'm not sure.
Let's see you next month,
one board member pointed out.
The budget today does not account for
paying for Denver police officers on campus.
So if the district brings
them back fulltime, who pays?
The city or the school district?
There's a lot to discuss betweew
and June for both the safety pl,
Kyle, and how to pay for it. Ye,
and for just the uncertainty
on on that one item.
The district's proposing, Well,
maybe we let individual schools decide
if they want those armed office,
so if the district ends up paying for it,
they don't even know how
many they would need.
Exactly. It's kind of hard,
right, to decide exactly what
you're going to need now,
but you have to plan for a budget now.
So they're doing what they can.
So there they are.
Jenny Michaels. Thank you.
Tonight, Boulder City Council
voted to remove a member from te
city's police oversight panel
for being too critical of polic.
The city hired a special counsel
to look into complaints that Lia
Sweeney Moran should not have
been put on that panel in the 1t
place due to anti police bias.
Sweeney Moran was only on
the panel for a few months.
She's been critical of law
enforcement in the past and
supportive of alternatives to
policing like Co responder prog.
The special counsel recommendedt
she either resign or be removed
because of what the special coul
called perceived or actual bias.
Tonight City Council voted 5:00 to 2:00
to accept the recommendation and remove
her from the police oversight p.
Sweeney Moran said the decision
was unethical and illegal,
suggesting the fights not over.
Denver is preparing for another surge
of migrants from the southern border.
There is already a significant
increase in arrivals daily. Just today,
more than 215 migrants arrived in Denver.
That's close to the number of people we
saw in late December and January, when
arrivals peaked at 271 people in one day.
This is something immigration experts
have been expecting for months,
with the end of Title 42 loomin.
It allowed authorities to turn y
certain migrants at the border.
We asked Denver's mayor,
Michael Hancock,
if the city is ready for another surge.
We are already communicating with partners.
We're already trying to determine how
best we will respond to that su.
I've talked to my counterparts around the
country, they're already seeing a surge
and so there's a great deal of concern.
Right now Denver is housing more than 560
migrants in city and non city facilities.
Skyrocketing home values
means storing property taxes.
Fighting the assessment can
be simple or it can be like
the project that this guy
put together.
Our spring storms were popping ,
but as quickly as they rolled i,
they're quickly moving out toni,
and I'm tracking drier days to .
That full forecast on the
other side of this break,
it has been one of the best andt
rewarding experiences of my lif.
Her school sent her to voluntee.
It turned into a cross
generational connection that
changed everyone for the better.