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August 26, 2021
JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
JeffcoTranscript.com
VOLUME 38 | ISSUE 5
Kendrick Lakes Elementary ushers in the school year with a new building School moved in April amid partial remote learning
Destinee Thompson, 27, killed following Target robbery
BY RYAN DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Some students at Kendrick Lakes Elementary School will come back from summer vacation to a new school building. The new Kendrick Lakes Elementary School opened to students last April amid a mix of in-person and remote learning and welcomed most of the school’s 370 students back to in-person learning for the first day of school on Aug. 17. The new building is located at the same Hoyt Street address in Lakewood as the old facility, with
Female dead after officer involved shooting BY RYAN DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Leanna Darnell, Wheat Ridge horticulturalist and manager of Happiness Gardens, gets her smoker ready before opening the hive.
Arvada Police shot the suspect of an armed robbery at the Super Target on Kipling Street in Wheat Ridge on Tuesday, Aug 17. Destinee Thompson, 27, was shot by an APD officer at the American Motel on I-70 at around 1 p.m. and was pronounced dead after a motor vehicle crash following the shooting. No other injuries were reported. Arvada Police initially responded to reports of a female suspect wielding a knife threatening people and stealing merchandise from the Target on Kipling. Officers tracked the suspect to the nearby American Motel, where she had fled on foot. Officers attempted to apprehend her and an altercation ensued, at which time they fired on Thompson. Thompson was able to flee the motel in a vehicle but crashed shortly after leaving the parking lot. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Two men at the Napa Auto Parts store near the scene of the vehicle crash, one of whom identified himself as Robert Kunshier, said they heard between eight to 10 gunshots shortly before a white van was seen speeding down the I-70 frontage
PHOTO BY BOB WOOLEY
SEE SHOOTING, P5
Students learn about ukulele tuning in the new music room at Kendrick Lakes.
SEE KENDRICK, P3
PHOTO BY RYAN DUNN
Pollinators program generates a lot of buzz Wheat Ridge sustainability event blends education with fun BY BOB WOOLEY BWOOLEY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
An early morning seminar, the third in Wheat Ridge’s series of sustainability workshops, Regenerate Wheat Ridge, brought folks of all ages together to learn about beekeeping. The Pollinators program at Happiness Gardens was hosted by SEE POLLINATORS, P25
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 18
NOTES ON HISTORY G. Brown captures pop music’s roots
P14