On a late summer morning, a tragedy unfolded in a Walmart parking lot in Lakewood, Colorado, that claimed the life of Steven Scott Hargis. The 27-year-old White male was fatally shot on Friday, September 18, 2020, while seated in his car. Witnesses reported seeing a man fire multiple rounds at Hargis before fleeing the scene. The incident, which occurred at the Walmart located at 440 Wadsworth Blvd., prompted a swift police response just before 10:30 a.m.
The man identified as the suspect in the shooting was 46-year-old Matthew Lyvon Paul of Denver. After shooting Hargis, Paul fled across Wadsworth Boulevard and attempted to carjack employees and customers at a nearby Grease Monkey. When his attempts to steal a vehicle failed, he ran into a residential neighborhood in the 7700 block of West 4th Avenue. In this area, Paul began firing at homes, cars, and the responding police officers.
The confrontation with law enforcement ended with Paul being shot by police. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Subsequent investigations revealed that Paul had a lengthy criminal history, with 38 arrests since 1992. Just a month prior to the fatal shooting, Paul had been involved in a crash where he drove his pickup into a Wheat Ridge police car, narrowly missing a tow truck driver. Alcohol was suspected to have been a factor in that incident, and a warrant for his arrest was in the process of being signed at the time of the shooting in Lakewood. The motive for the shooting of Steven Hargis remains under investigation.
