Charges filed in death of driver, carjacking

A 26-year-old man who claimed he had a hit list and would kill three people has been formally charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the death of a delivery driver and attempted murder after he carjacked a pickup and tried to run over a differnt man and his daughter.

Denver District Attorney Beth McCann also charged Eric Okano Ukuni on Tuesday with two counts of burglary, two counts of robbery, two counts of attempted robbery, witness intimidation, two counts of attempted first-degree assault and various other violence-related charges. Altogether Ukuni faces 24 felony charges.

Ernest Gurrini, 66, was standing beside a delivery van when Ukuni allegedly drove directly into him. Gurrini was struck and killed, according to a news release by McCann’s spokesman Ken Lane.

On the morning of Aug. 8, after spending the night drinking and using drugs including acid, Ukuni allegedly broke a window, entered Mi Pueblo Market on the 6000 block of East 64th Avenue in Commerce City and attempted to rob employees, a police report says. It was around 7 a.m.

Ukuni then allegedly stole a red Ford pickup in the store’s parking lot after holding a screw driver to the throat of a man and threatening to kill him if his 18-year-old daughter didn’t hand over her phone. The suspect didn’t stab the man but ran around to the other side of the truck. The man and his daughter crawled out the driver’s side of the car.

Ukuni allegedly drove directly at the young woman as if to run her over and she ran behind a concrete barrier to escape, police records say. The man then ran with his daughter as the suspect tried several times to run them over. At one point Ukuni allegedly got out of the truck and chased them on foot, but then returned to the stolen pickup. The man and his daughter ran from the parking lot to a Dairy Queen and called police.

Just as Commerce City police drove into the market parking lot, Ukuni allegedly fled in the stolen truck. Commerce City police gave chase until they lost sight of the stolen truck.

A woman was driving east on East 40th Avenue on her way to work when a man in a red pickup truck tailgated and then passed her car. She saw the pickup ram into the back of a sedan four times. The fourth strike pushed the car into westbound lanes into oncoming traffic.

Ukuni allegedly crossed Havana Street at approximately the 10400 block of E. 40th Avenue, and appeared to have intentionally hit and killed Gurrini, the report says. The woman who had been driving to work said she thought there was a mannequin on the road. It was Gurrini’s body.

Witnesses said Ukuni was screaming, “three people will die today” and that he had a “hit list,” according to the police report.

Ukuni then allegedly ran from the disabled pickup and attempted, but failed, to carjack more vehicles around 40th Avenue and Havana Street, the police report says.

When Ukuni allegedly jumped into a white car parked outside a nearby 7Eleven, where Gurrini had just purchased a cup of coffee, several people tussled with him. Ukuni climbed out and people chased him down the street.

Police arrested Ukuni shortly afterwards.