BOULDER OKS BAN ON ASSAULT GUNS
BOULDER» Boulder’s City Council unanimously passed a ban on assault weapons, even as it faced down a threat of legal action during Tuesday night’s meeting.
Attorneys from Mountain States Legal Foundation, speaking during the open comment section preceding the vote, vowed to challenge the ban in court on behalf of an unnamed client, alleging “violations of the Second, Fifth and 14th Amendments, (and) the Colorado Constitution.”
The ordinance prohibits the sale and possession of assault weapons, as defined by the city. Also outlawed are weapons with high-capacity magazines and bump stocks.
Owners of the latter two items will have until July 15 to dispose of or sell them. Assault weapons will be grandfathered in.
Craig woman guilty in husband’s death.
A woman has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of her husband.
The Craig Daily Press reports that a jury of 10 women and two men convicted 40-year-old Rachel Niemeyer in the death of 48-year-old Michael Freese.
The charges against Niemeyer arose from an Oct. 4 incident at Craig’s Bear Valley Inn, where Niemeyer and Freese had been staying since relocating to Craig. Court records say they were both offered jobs that day at the Clarion Inn & Suites and had been “drinking heavily” in celebration when they began “messing around” with Freese’s rifle. Niemeyer’s defense claimed Freese shot himself. Prosecutors said Niemeyer shot him in a drunken rage.
Officials ID men electrocuted in Colorado Springs.
The El Paso County Coroner’s Office has identified the two men who died last week after being electrocuted near the Ray Nixon Power Plant.
The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that the office on Tuesday identified the men as 25-year-old Benjamin Hey and 24year-old Joseph Sampedro.
Arem Benyamin, general manager of Colorado Springs Utilities’ Energy Supply Division, said they had been taking soil samples for an expansion of the power plant’s main entrance gate when their truck hit a 12,250-volt overhead power line.
Hey and Sampedro died at the scene. A third worker, who was standing farther from the truck, was uninjured.
Two men held for animal cruelty.
Two men are in a West Texas jail charged with animal cruelty after police stopped the two rented trucks the pair were driving and saved dozens of livestock from Colorado found overheated inside.
In a statement, the Parmer County Sheriff’s Office said deputies and Farwell police alerted by a caller stopped a pair of panel trucks. Inside one were 38 dairy goats. In the other were seven goats, 58 chickens, five turkeys, three Guinea hens, two chinchillas and four dogs.