Loveland Man Charged With Murder In 2015 NoCo Shootings

LOVELAND, CO -- A Loveland man arrested Tuesday and held without bond in the Larimer County Jail was charged with murder and attempted murder, and may yet be connected to four other unsolved shootings, one of them fatal, that terrorized Northern Colorado in the summer and fall of 2015.

Christopher David Parker, 35, was arrested Tuesday and charged Wednesday with the June 3, 2015, fatal shooting of Loveland grandfather William Connole, 66, in downtown Loveland. On the same date, a motorcycle rider was also shot at, but not injured (see video above). Parker was charged with murder and attempted murder Wednesday and the judge ordered him not to contact any family members of Connole.

Parker was taken into coustuody without incident at intersection of Hahns Peak Drive and East Eisenhower Boulevard and is being held in Larimer County Jail without bail.

Parker had "an arsenal of weapons," police said, when he was investigated in April, 2017, after he allegedly made online and verbal threats about a branch bank in Loveland, an arrest affidavit said. After a visit from the Loveland PD SWAT team, Parker was issued a restraining order to stay away from the bank and any bank employees.

Members of the Northern Colorado Shooting Task Force held a press conference about their three year investigation of a string of unsolved shootings took place on communities up and down I-25 between April and September in 2015. The task force is made up of NoCo law enforcement agencies, federal agents and officers from Wyoming and Nebraska.

While the task force has linked the two Loveland-area shootings, they said they had so far found no evidence linking Parker to the shooting of a woman driving on I-25, the shooting homicide of Windsor cyclist John Jacoby or the shooting out of windows at a school in Loveland and a Fort Collins hospital.

The investigation pursued more than 5,000 leads and 12 persons of interest, said task force commander Larimer Sheriff's Office Capt. Bob Coleman. The task force investigated 14,000 pickup trucks matching the description of a pickup caught on surveillance video in one of the Loveland shootings.

The six unsolved shooting incidents were:

• April 22, 2015. A Milliken woman, 20, was shot in the neck while driving on I-25 between Fort Collins and Windsor. Sheriff's deputies believed the shooting was a random act.
• May 18, 2015. Bicyclist John Jacoby, 47, was found shot to death on the side of a road in Windsor.
• June 3, 2015 Loveland grandfather William Connole, 66, was shot and killed in downtown Loveland. On the same date, a motorcycle rider was also shot at, but not injured.

Connole's sister, Mary Connole spoke of the senselessness of her brother's death Thursday and the hope that John Jacoby's family would soon find out answers in his death.

"He was just a guy, walking down the street. He was my older brother. He was a father. He was a grandfather," Mary Connole said." We need to let the system continue to do its job and to keep in mind the Jacobys and all the victims that have been affected by these murders."

Anyone with information is asked to call the task force at 970-498-5595 or taskforce@larimer.org. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of the person or people responsible for the shootings.

Parker's next court date is scheduled for Tuesday.

Image: Christopher Parker via Larimer County Sheriff's office.