LITTLETON 12.27.12
December 27, 2012
Arapahoe County, Colorado • Volume 123, Issue 49
75 cents
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourlittletonnews.com
Second arrest made in slaying
SLICK ST. NICK
Teenager charged in Littleton murder By Jennifer Smith
jsmith@ourcoloradonews.com
Santa skates with the performers in South Suburban’s “Holiday on Ice” show Dec. 21. The free show entertained the audience with skating routines set to holiday classics like “Frosty the Snowman” and “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Photo by Courtney Kuhlen
A year of tragedy and triumph The past year was some kind of ride — an emotional roller coaster, if you will. The year brought the nation a presidential election and the barrage of campaign ads preceding it. It brought us a Summer Olympics and a contingent of American champions. In Colorado, 2012 brought us a slew of wildfires that cost some people everything and filled the skies with smoke as far as you could see. The year brought us the Aurora theater massacre. South Metro Denver residents shared in all of this in one way or another. But here, we also saw signs of a potentially booming economy as more and more developers and employers moved in. We saw a school district entangled in controversy. And we saw tragedies that hit on a smaller scale, but were equally heartbreaking to area communities. What follows is a compilation of the South Metro area’s top 10 stories of the year as chosen by the newsroom staff of Colorado Community Media. These are the stories we believe had the greatest impact on our readers in 2012. They are presented in no particular order. We’ll let you, the reader, be the judge of the single biggest story of the year.
Missy Franklin of Centennial dances on stage at a ceremony honoring her and other Colorado Olympians returning from London. The brief event was hosted by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and area officials. Photo by Deborah Grigsby
Caught up in ‘Missy mania’
A 17-year-old swimmer from Centennial captivated the nation this past summer. Missy Franklin won five medals, four of them gold, at the Olympics in London.
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In August, hundreds of fans packed Centennial Center Park for a welcome-home ceremony for Franklin and all of Colorado’s Olympians. But the hometown girl was the star of the show in what ended up being more like a big block party as “The Missile” danced her way to the podium to Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me, Maybe.” Gov. John Hickenlooper and Centennial Mayor Cathy Noon lauded Franklin, along with six additional Colorado athletes on their return from London. Team USA grabbed 104 medals. Nine of those were awarded to Coloradans. “That makes about 8.69 percent of the total medal count going to Colorado,” said Hickenlooper. “So I’d say we definitely out2012 continues on Page 4
Littleton police have arrested a second suspect in the shooting that killed 18-yearold Da Von Flores and wounded a 17-yearold. Robert Alexander Placa, 18, of Centennial was taken into custody on Dec. 20. He’s charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, possession of a weapon by a previous offender and possession of a defaced firearm. He is being held without bond at the Arapahoe County jail. He joins Dion Rankin, 20, of Englewood, who was arrested Oct. 24 and is facing charges of first-degree Placa murder. He’s scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 3. On Oct. 19, officers responded to the 5400 block of South Fox Street about 11 p.m. on reports of shots fired. They arrived quickly to find the two males shot and lying in the street. Flores, a new father, died at the scene. The Rev. Leon Kelly of Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives has talked to the wounded teen’s mother. She says her son is physically OK but bitter and angry. “His attitude now is just hard-core,” said Kelly. “And now he thinks he’s invincible.” The altercation was tied to a house party on Fox Street. Neighbor kids say those involved were gang-bangers with a “previous beef,” and a Facebook search indicates they could be right. Now removed, Flores’ page showed him with a blue bandanna covering the lower half of his face. Rankin’s page references “CMG,” which is short for Crenshaw Mafia Gangsters, affiliated with the Bloods. Kelly says CMG first took hold in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood about 27 years ago. Littleton’s northeast neighborhood is no stranger to trouble. A year before, Evaristo Galindo, then 17, told Littleton police officers he was alone in Progress Park when he got shot on Oct. 21, 2011. Doctors found birdshot pellets lodged in his shinbone and jawbone, according to the police report. A disturbance was reported about 10:30 that night near West Prentice Avenue and South Lakeview Street, immediately south of the park. Witnesses heard gunshots, fighting and squealing tires. Two witnesses reported they saw up to 15 people in the intersection, some yelling “South Side” and “SPV 13,” indicating gang activity. The northeast neighborhood for years has been the focus of much outreach from groups like Greater Littleton Youth Initiative, Littleton Immigrant Integration Initiative and North Littleton Promise, which was formed specifically to serve the area. “A group of community-minded people from Centennial Covenant Church learned about the suburbanization of poverty and began to explore if there was indeed a struggling community in suburban Littleton,” reads NLP’s website. “After talking with local law enforcement, they discovered a community in northeast Littleton where gang involvement, truancy and teen pregnancy were prevalent.”