The 21-year-old man charged in connection with a fatal Commerce City shooting last week allegedly opened fire into the house after a friend got into a fight there, according to police.
Ethan Jennings, 21, was charged last week with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree assault — all felonies — relating to the Sept. 6 shooting that killed 20-year-old Makayla Lawrence. Two other victims were shot and transported to the hospital.
Three days after the shooting — after they allegedly led police in northern Colorado on a high-speed chase in a stolen sedan — 18-year-old Justin Shull and 19-year-old Virginia Maestas were arrested alongside Jennings in connection to the shooting, according to a Commerce City Police Department arrest affidavit.
Shull was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, second-degree motor vehicle theft, vehicular eluding causing injury, resisting arrest, obstructing a peace officer, possession of burglary tools, reckless driving, speeding 40 mph over the limit, leaving the scene of an accident and driving under restraint, according to court records.
The 18-year-old posted his $10,000 bail on Sept. 16 and failed to appear for his advisement hearing on Sept. 19, court records show.
Maestas was arrested and charged with first-degree motor vehicle theft, vehicular eluding causing injury, second-degree assault, resisting arrest, obstructing a peace officer, possession of burglary tools, reckless driving and driving under restraint, according to court records.
The 19-year-old is being held in Weld County Jail on a $10,000 bail and is next scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 1, court records show.
Police say the Sept. 6 shooting happened after the two victims who were injured — Jacob Shull and his wife, Jacqueline Esquibel — were involved in a fist-fight with Maestas.
The couple had been at the same Commerce City home where the shooting later occurred earlier that day to check on a friend, according to the affidavit. While there, Esquibel and Maestas got into a fight, which eventually involved Justin Shull.
According to the affidavit, the three victims all returned to the house that night. Maestas was also there, along with two men in ski masks. When Jacob Shull, Esquibel and Lawrence tried to leave the house, all three were struck by gunfire and Lawrence was killed.
Surveillance footage showed a white truck leaving the scene. Police had followed the same truck the day before and later determined it to be stolen, according to the affidavit. Surveillance footage of that day showed Maestas with a man dressed in a ski mask and black clothing, police said.
On Sept. 9, Firestone Police pursued a stolen sedan containing Maestas, Jennings and Justin Shull — who police say is the cousin of Jacob Shull, one of the people shot in Commerce City — according to the affidavit.
Maestas allegedly struck an officer while attempting to flee in the sedan, police said in the affidavit. Justin Shull than allegedly took control of the vehicle and led police on a high-speed chase before eventually crashing.
Justin Shull and Jennings then allegedly ran into a drainage culvert, where police say they left a disassembled 9mm firearm and two smashed cellphones. Justin Shull surrendered, according to the affidavit, but Jennings allegedly challenged police to shoot him before he was subdued by “less lethal weapons” and arrested.
Two bullets recovered by Firestone Police after the chase matched one round found at the scene of the shooting, police said. Subsequent firearm analysis matched the gun recovered in the drainage culvert to the Commerce City shooting, according to the affidavit.
Maestas later told police that Jennings was one of the men who shot into the house, according to the affidavit.
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