Boulder police arrested a man Monday morning on suspicion of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old University of Colorado Boulder student on Halloween.
Omar Perez, 18, was booked into the Boulder County Jail at 9:39 a.m. Monday and faces one count of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of first-degree assault causing serious bodily injury with extreme indifference, according to the jail log. Perez, of Thornton, was arrested early Monday with the assistance of the Thornton and Westminster police departments and the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, according to a news release from the city of Boulder.
The Boulder County Coroner’s Office, in a news release issued Monday evening, identified Luca Hanlon as the man who died.
If convicted, a first-degree murder charge carries a possible life sentence.
“As the criminal proceedings begin, I promise you that our team will be relentless in the pursuit of justice,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty wrote in a statement.
Police believe Perez is the only shooter linked to the Marine Street killing, the release said. He is not a CU Boulder student.
Witnesses told police they saw a man pull out a gun and fire three shots indiscriminately at the group of people hanging out at the party, according to an arrest affidavit. Police later identified the man as Perez after someone showed them Perez’s tracking data for that night and said he had recently purchased a Glock “on the street.”
A man told police that Perez and a group of people tried to enter the home in the 700 block of Marine Street, despite being told they couldn’t, the affidavit states. Most of those people were kicked out of the house, but Perez was still inside and ran toward the partygoers, the man told police.
The man told police he heard Perez say, “Oh, I could shoot up this place,” after he was told to leave, the affidavit states.
The man put Perez under the head and began dragging him toward the door around 11:28 p.m. when Perez pulled out a gun and fired three times, the man told police. Another witness told police he saw the same thing, according to the affidavit.
That’s when Perez, who was wearing a SWAT uniform and a mask from the movie “The Purge,” ran out of the house, the affidavit states. The man told police he approached a man who had been shot in the neck and told him everything would be okay.
The person who was shot in the neck, a 19-year-old CU student, later died at Boulder Community Health, police said. The other student, 19, was shot in the leg and remains in the hospital, according to the Boulder news release.
The two 19-year-old students were taken to Boulder Community Health, where one of them later died, Police Chief Steve Redfearn said at a news conference Sunday.
Police identified Perez after someone called the police tip line and said Perez and three friends had come to where she worked in Broomfield, where she saw him wearing the same outfit that witnesses described at the party, the affidavit states. Perez told her that he and his friends had been beaten at a party earlier that night, she told police.
She also told police that Perez had recently purchased a 10-millimeter Glock “on the street” and posted it on Instagram. In September, Perez shot himself in the calf with a revolver he owned, but threw it in the bushes in Adams County before officers found him, she told police.
The Instagram post was later deleted, but police found several 10-millimeter bullet casings in the area of the Boulder shooting, the affidavit states.
Perez’s cellphone tracking information showed he was at the Marine Street party between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Saturday night, she showed police.
Police were at the same house around 10 p.m. to break up the party for noise violations, the affidavit states. One resident told police that up to 800 people were there at the height of the party. Most of them left when police closed the scene, but a smaller group remained, the affidavit states.
“Everyone in our community deserves to feel safe and while I hope this arrest restores some safety, I know it will never bring back this young man’s life or erase all of the trauma the victims suffered,” Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn wrote in the release.
Police are still investigating and are asking people to help identify others who were at the party, the release said. Photos of these people can be found on the City of Boulder website. Anyone who recognizes the people in the photos should call police at 303-441-3333 and reference case 26-10148, the release said.
It was Boulder’s first homicide of the year, Redfearn said Sunday.
“Our students and families deserve to feel safe in their communities, on campus, and wherever they gather,” Gov. Jared Polis wrote in an X-article Monday morning. “My thoughts are with the victims, their families and the entire CU Boulder community.”
Perez is scheduled to appear for a deliberative hearing Tuesday afternoon in Boulder County District Court. Bail has not been set.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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