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LAKEWOOD — When Broomfield senior Lilly Nichols first cleared the 13 foot, 7 inch pole vault bar at the state track and field championships on Thursday afternoon, she had already won her third Class 5A crown and set a personal record. Then she kept going. Nichols decided to go for the all-Colorado girls record of 13-9, which Andrea Willis set in 2016.

LAKEWOOD — Lochlan Walker was still winded and hunched over from his 100-meter dash when his mom, Paige, mobbed him with the news of his personal record time of 12.48 seconds. They smiled simultaneously and shared a moment they won’t soon forget as Walker, a Fairview High School senior, notched the fastest time for a Special Olympic/Paralympic athlete on Thursday afternoon at the 2024 CHSAA state track and field meet at Jeffco Stadium. About an hour later, Walker also recorded the best Special Olympic/Paralympic time in the 200 meters, at 25.92.

Deputies fatally shot an armed man who was holding a developmentally disabled woman at gunpoint inside a home near Qunicy Reservoir on Wednesday afternoon, Arapahoe County sheriff’s officials said Thursday. Related Articles Crime and Public Safety | Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputies involved in shooting near Quincy Reservoir Crime and Public Safety | Thornton police fatally shoot man who fired on officer near rec center, officials say Crime and Public Safety | Armed carjacking suspect killed in Lakewood police shooting Crime and Public Safety | Police fatally shoot suspect in Aurora apartment shooting Crime and Public Safety | Thornton police fatally shoot 2 people after being fired on following chase into Lakewood, officials say The law enforcement agency waited 24 hours both to acknowledge that its deputies had shot someone and to report that the person had died at the scene. Deputies responded to a home in the 4500 block of South Himalaya Circle just after 3 p.m.

Groundwork for possible car-free living along Colorado’s Front Range got done Thursday as Gov. Jared Polis signed four bills into law to boost public transportation. The new laws let state leaders pump tens of millions into transit projects, foremost a multi-billion-dollar rail system linking Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and, eventually, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Polis rode a Regional Transportation District B-Line train from Westminster to Union Station Thursday and signed the following measures: — SB24-229 – A crackdown on air pollution from oil and gas production.

Joseph Mario Castorena (Aurora Police Department) An Arapahoe County jury on Thursday found 22-year-old Joseph Mario Castorena guilty of first-degree murder in a 2022 domestic violence shooting that claimed the lives of three family members and a fourth man at an Aurora home. Jurors convicted Castorena of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder, the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced. The jury also found that prosecutors proved six sentence-enhancing charges related to violent crime, according to court records.

Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon fully reopened Thursday evening following a vehicle fire, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Related Articles Crime and Public Safety | 1 killed in fiery tanker-truck crash that shut down I-70 near Morrison Crime and Public Safety | Colorado weather: Half-inch hail forecast in El Paso County Crime and Public Safety | I-70 traffic: 2 eastbound lanes closed in Wheat Ridge for emergency pothole repair on bridge Crime and Public Safety | Eastbound I-70 reopens at Quebec Street after crash Crime and Public Safety | Northbound E-470 to be closed overnight at I-70 for bridge construction The highway was closed for several hours between exit 114 for West Glenwood Springs and exit 133 for Dotsero. Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.