In the early hours of November 2, 2021, a grim discovery was made in a parking lot in east Colorado Springs, Colorado. Inside a parked vehicle in the 4400 block of Fountain Springs Grove, police found the bodies of two men, one of whom was 20-year-old Darius Tamar Cheatom Jr., a Black/African American male. Both he and the other man, 54-year-old Leroy Law, were deceased from gunshot wounds.
The Colorado Springs Police Department immediately launched a homicide investigation into their deaths.
The investigation led detectives to a 15-year-old male. On November 30, 2021, an arrest warrant was obtained for the teenager, charging him with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Cheatom and Law. At the time the warrant was issued, the suspect was already being held at the Zebulon Pike Youth Services Center on unrelated charges. The arrest warrant was served to him at the facility. Due to his status as a juvenile, his name and photograph have not been publicly released by law enforcement.
The motive behind the double homicide has not been disclosed by authorities, and the investigation is considered ongoing. Officials have not released any further details about the suspect or the circumstances that led to the fatal shooting. The deaths of Darius Cheatom and Leroy Law marked the 33rd and 34th homicide investigations in the city of Colorado Springs for the year 2021. Friends and family of Darius remembered him as a kind and thoughtful young man with a good sense of humor, who was cherished by those who knew him.
