2 men shot to death; 3rd body found

Two men were shot to death and the body of a third man was found in a car near Garden of the Gods on Monday and early Tuesday during a deadly 12 hours in Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs police said the three deaths appear unrelated, and no arrests have been made in the shootings as detectives scramble to conduct simultaneous investigations.

Lt. Sal Fiorillo said the detectives were stretched during the unusual day.

Police are searching for three men in their mid-20s whose faces were covered by white and black bandannas in the fatal shooting of Jamil Salaam, 22, a former Widefield High School basketball star, about 4:40 a.m. Tuesday near the 800 block of Chapman Road.

Another fatal shooting occurred around midnight Monday at the Verde Meadows Apartments, 1440 S. Chelton Road. John Phillip Kidwell, 25, was killed after a confrontation with two men, police said. Authorities had only a vague description of the suspects.

The El Paso County Coroner’s Office was no closer to identifying a man whose body was found in a car a mile past Garden of the Gods Park on Rampart Range Road about 7 p.m. Monday.

An autopsy Tuesday did not determine the cause of death, and there were no signs of injuries, said deputy coroner Steve Barbere. The man had no identification, and the car had a California license plate, he said.

Tuesday morning, police were called to the Pine Creek Village Apartments, where officers found Salaam lying on the pavement near a customized sport utility vehicle. Salaam was in the parking lot talking with friends when the shooting happened, police said.

Salaam lived in the Pine Creek Village Apartments and was a 6-foot-7-inch center for the Widefield basketball team in 2002. He was second-team Gazette All-Area as a senior and was Class 4A Metro All-League first team.

His father said Salaam planned to go to law school and was studying for a test at his parents’ house Monday night.

“He wasn’t agitated or upset, and as far as I know, he didn’t have any altercations with anybody,” Dawud Salaam said. “He wasn’t in no gang or nothing like that.”

After his dad fell asleep, Jamil Salaam set the alarm clock for his father.

“He gave me a kiss on my head and he left,” Dawud Salaam said. “That was the last time I saw my son.”

Survivors include Jamil’s parents, two brothers and one sister.

A friend from high school sobbed as she watched his body being taken away.

“He was so good,” Valeri Spencer said as she wiped her eyes. “He didn’t do nothing to nobody.”

Spencer saw Salaam and others lighting firecrackers Monday night but did not know why anyone would want to kill him. She said he was going to Pikes Peak Community College to get a job to support his 6-month-old baby.

“He was just a good-hearted person,” she said. “I could call him and he would be there in a hot second.”

Widefield High School’s longtime basketball coach, Mark Munoz, said Salaam was “well-liked and a great teammate.”

Police were called to the earlier shooting around midnight at the Verde Meadows Apartments where Kidwell was fatally shot.

A police statement said two men had gone to the apartment and talked to Kidwell shortly before the shooting.

After Kidwell went outside with the men, a bullet was fired and went through the apartment door and grazed a woman inside.

Kidwell, who had been shot, was put into a Toyota pickup by two people inside the apartment. Police responding to a 911 call stopped the truck in the 1700 block of South Academy Boulevard, about a mile from the complex. Kidwell was already dead, police said.

Kidwell’s father, John Lee Kidwell, said his son was working for West Electric and was about to get his electrician’s license. He had just bought a house where he was living with his girlfriend and his dog, Nizzy.

“I don’t know anything that would’ve put him in this situation. He was pretty much in that stage of getting over his childhood and settling down,” he said. “I tend to be a softy so it’s been hard.”

Survivors include Kidwell’s father and stepmother, mother who lives in Phoenix and his

three siblings.

“He kept to himself pretty much, but he also had a lot of friends,” his stepmother Jackie Kidwell said. “Now we’re just dealing with the shock.”

Anyone with information about the shootings should contact police at 444-7000. People may report details anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers at 634-STOP.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0184 or sarah.pulliam@gazette.com

Cause of killings tough to identify

Toll surpasses total of 2006

With five homicides, a missing woman and an unidentified body in a car, all in the past three weeks, it may seem like Colorado Springs has become a dangerous place lately.

Authorities say that is not the case.

Two fatal shootings late Monday and early Tuesday brought the number of homicides in the city this year to 16 — more than in all of 2006.

“We do have, from time to time, year after year, spikes in violent behavior and we may go two, three, four months without anything like that,” said Colorado Springs police spokesman Lt. Skip Arms.

It’s not unusual for such crimes to be clustered, usually around the holidays or in the summer months. November 2005 had five killings and December 2002 saw seven slayings.

There were 15 homicides in the city last year, 18 in 2005, 20 in 2004 and 18 in 2003.

The record year was 1991, when 28 killings, many involving teens in rival gangs, shocked the community.

Although this year could be on pace to equal or exceed earlier highs, Arms said that it would still be a statistical anomaly.

Arms said there is no one factor connecting the killings, and he said investigators have no indication either of the most recent shootings was gang-related.

The excessive heat in recent days could be a factor, he said, bringing more people outside, leading to more alcohol consumption and short tempers. But last summer, Colorado Springs didn’t experience a single killing from late May to late August.

By comparison, during a violent, hot summer in 2002, the year of the Hayman fire, 11 people were slain from June through August in the Springs.

The hot-weather theory isn’t one 4th Judicial District Attorney John Newsome subscribes to.

“They’re the ones responsible for their actions, and I don’t think it has much to do with the weather,” Newsome said of killers. “The responsibility lies with the person pulling the trigger.”

Residents in the area of the recent shootings are concerned but not panicked, said Eric Peterson, past director of the Pride in the Park Neighborhood Association, near where the latest homicides occurred in southeast Colorado Springs.

While he said new graffiti in the area could be evidence of increased gang activity, residents aren’t afraid they are in the midst of gang violence.

“You can go into any city and there will be a violent crime here and a violent crime there and they don’t go together” as they would if gang violence was rampant, he said.

Said Dianna May, who prosecutes homicides for the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, “I think what’s important to do is look at a five-year period or a longer period, more than month-to-month or weekto-week.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-1605 or scott.rappold@gazette.com

RECENT HOMICIDES

There have been five homicides in Colorado Springs within the past three weeks, one of the most violent periods in recent memory. The deaths included:

KESHA TANN: 42, found stabbed to death June 27 in the parking lot of her place of employment on Garden of the Gods Road. Earl Frederick Mayes, 51, an ex-boyfriend, was arrested in connection with her death.

THEA MATTEO: 43, shot and killed outside her home on Florence Avenue on June 28. John Morris, 41, a tenant and sometime boyfriend of Matteo’s, shot her and went back inside before shooting himself in the head, Colorado Springs police said.

DIONTEA JACKSON-FORREST: 19, killed early July 9 when a bullet was fired into his car at Printers Parkway and Airport Road. Police arrested Tyrief Ahmad Reynolds, 17, on suspicion of murder.

JOHN PHILLIP KIDWELL: 25, shot and killed in the 1400 block of South Chelton Road about midnight Monday. No arrests have been made.

JAMIL SALAAM: 22, was shot and killed about 4:40 a.m. Tuesday near the 800 block of Chapman Road after a fight or argument. No arrests have been made.