In the quiet evening of November 21, 2021, a sequence of events unfolded in Colorado Springs that would tragically cut short the life of 17-year-old Matthew Adian Terry. A male, Matthew was a senior at Vista Ridge High School with dreams of becoming a rapper and creating his own clothing line. He was known for his kind and loving soul, a young man who enjoyed making music and held aspirations for a creative future.
That Sunday, at approximately 7:35 P.M., the Colorado Springs Police and
Fire Departments responded to a report of a traffic crash in the 1000 block of Mazatlan Circle. Upon their arrival, they discovered the driver of the vehicle, later identified as Matthew Terry, was unresponsive. Medical personnel at the scene pronounced him deceased. No one else was injured in the crash. However, first responders soon realized this was no ordinary traffic accident; the driver appeared to have sustained a gunshot wound.
The investigation was quickly taken over by detectives from the Colorado Springs Police Department's Homicide/Assault Unit. Their work led them to identify a suspect in the shooting. The following day, an arrest warrant for first-degree murder was issued for 18-year-old James Thomas Lloyd of Colorado Springs. Lloyd was taken into custody without incident and booked into the El Paso County Jail.
On Tuesday, November 23, 2021, the El Paso County Coroner's Office completed an autopsy and officially identified the victim as Matthew Terry. His death was declared the 39th homicide investigation in the city of Colorado Springs for that year. While the investigation continued to be active, the arrest of a suspect brought a swift, though somber, development in the case of the young man whose life was violently ended.
