DENVER ― Westminster police say a Colorado Springs man who allegedly shot two boys, their mother and a bystander Thursday afternoon, killing one of the boys, likely acted out of road rage.
Authorities arrested 23-year-old Jeremy John Webster without incident several hours after the shooting, which occurred in a parking lot outside a dental office in the northwestern Denver suburb of Westminster.
As of Friday morning, the woman, identified in a police affidavit as Megan Bigelow, 41, and her surviving son, age 8, were in critical condition at a local hospital, according to Westminster Police. Her other son was 13 years old.
Bigelow had a third son, a 12-year-old, with her at the time of the shooting. He fled and was not injured.
“It appears as if this incident stemmed from a road rage,” Westminster Police Department investigator Cheri Spottke said in a press release late Friday afternoon, noting that Webster didn’t know any of the victims when he opened fire.
According to a copy of the affidavit obtained by 9News, Webster and Bigelow were involved in an altercation at a nearby intersection and he followed the family’s vehicle into the parking lot.
He shot her and the two children point-blank with a handgun multiple times, walked toward his car, then returned to the 13-year-old and fired again, the affidavit says.
Webster allegedly fired several shots at the bystander, John Gale, 40, from a distance after making eye contact with him as he and his 9-year-old daughter sat in their truck in the parking lot. He is expected to survive. She was unharmed.
Webster faces charges of first-degree murder after deliberation with intent, first-degree murder with extreme indifference, first-degree assault and criminal attempt to commit a class 1 felony.