Community reacts to tragic shooting

Michael Fisher didn’t know the girl in his car. He was just helping out a friend who didn’t have a car.

Less than half an hour after picking up Tiffany Howard at Doherty High School, Fisher was dead, shot by her ex-boyfriend.

Fisher, 18, a senior at Wasson High School, was killed Monday in a midday shooting in southeast Colorado Springs by Andrew Brown, who followed them after Fisher and some friends picked her up, police said Tuesday.

The incident began shortly before 1 p.m. when Howard, 16, called Jeremy Vasquez, 16, and asked him if he would pick her up at school because she was concerned about Brown. She and Brown, 17, both students at Doherty, had dated, but Howard recently ended the relationship.

Police Sgt. Jeff Jensen said investigators had not determined how close Howard and Brown were and why they broke up.

Vasquez asked Fisher, who had a Ford Explorer, if he could give Howard a ride and the two, along with two other friends, Robert Ellsworth, 16, and Caleb Moore, 15, went to Doherty.

At 1:18 p.m., Ellsworth and Moore called police, saying they were at East San Miguel Street and North Murray Boulevard and were being chased, police spokesman Lt. Skip Arms said at a news conference Tuesday.

Arms said dispatchers gave the teens directions to the Sand Creek police substation and were directing officers to them. As Fisher approached Crestline Drive on South Murray Boulevard, less than a mile from the police substation, Brown pulled up beside Fisher in a Chevrolet Suburban.

“Once alongside the vehicle, Andrew Brown fired a shot at the vehicle, striking Jeremy Vasquez,” Arms said.

Fisher immediately stopped and passers-by and the passengers tried to help Vasquez, police said. Brown turned around and blocked Fisher’s vehicle. He got out of the Suburban and shot Fisher several times with a shotgun. He then dragged Howard to a nearby field and beat her with the butt of his shotgun.

When officers arrived at about 1:25 p.m., Brown had gotten back in his vehicle. Officers ordered him to show his hands, Arms said, but, instead, Brown took out a second shotgun that was in the Suburban and fatally shot himself.

The El Paso County Coroner’s Office said Fisher died of multiple gunshot wounds. His death was the 21st homicide of the year in Colorado Springs.

Howard remained at Memorial Hospital on Tuesday with injuries that were not lifethreatening.

Police said Vasquez was taken to Memorial Hospital and later to Denver Health Medical Center, where he was in critical condition. At a vigil Tuesday night at the shooting scene, Jodi Megrew, a family friend, said, “Jeremy’s mom has told us he’s not going to make it.”

Ellsworth, a Wasson student, and Moore, who is homeschooled, were not injured.

About 20 teens from Wasson and Palmer high schools gathered to remember Fisher, a classmate of many of them when they attended Horace Mann Middle School.

Seniors Megan Erwin, Rebecca Fontana and Katy Caron placed a plastic bottle of Dr Pepper next to some flowers. They said it was Fisher’s favorite soda. Earlier in the day, a sunflower and cross were left near a lamppost, barely visible to passers-by.