A Colorado woman was killed last week when someone threw a large landscaping rock through her windshield as she talked with a friend on her phone while driving.
The random attack in Jefferson County was one of at least five late Wednesday night involving 3 to 5-pound rocks that were reportedly larger than softballs.
“These are not games. These are people’s lives, and what happened last night should never have happened,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Jacki Kelley said at the time. “We don’t know who these suspects are, why they’re trying to do this, but they killed somebody last night, and we want to know who they are.”
Well, not only does law enforcement now know who the suspects are, they learned that the alleged culprits went back to the scene of the crime to take a photo.
The sheriff’s office identified the three 18-year-old suspects as Joseph Koenig, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak, all of Arvada, Colorado. They were charged with murder in a series of rock attacks that left 20-year-old Alexa Bartell dead.
The arrest affidavit also said the trio took a photo of Bartell’s damaged vehicle as a “memento,” Fox News reported.
Having obtained the document, the network said the three friends planned to meet up via Snapchat on April 19, and eventually went to a Walmart to get landscaping rocks from the edge of the store’s parking lot, loading them into Koenig’s pickup.
A teenage witness saw this happen and later told police that Koenig “frequently participates in destructive behavior” because he enjoys causing “chaos,” according to the affidavit.
They allegedly threw rocks at five different vehicles, including Bartell’s.
According to Karol-Chik’s statements to police, Kwak allegedly said after striking Bartell’s car, “We have to go back and see that.”
They circled back to find Bartell’s car and Kwak reportedly took a photo of the damage to her windshield.
Karol-Chik said he felt a “hint of guilt” as the photo was being taken and told investigators that Kwak became “excited” when he hit a vehicle with a rock.
When asked why he took the photo, Kwak told investigators he thought his friends would want it as a “memento,” according to the affidavit.
Kwak also said Karol-Chik would use “Marine” terminology, such as “contact left,” before targeting a vehicle to his left.
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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