Paul John Lattner, a 38-year-old White male, was shot to death late on January 23, 2015, at a residence on the 4300 block of Northridge Place in Colorado Springs. Police were called at 10:48 p.m. after a confrontation between Lattner and his live-in landlord, John Lorenz, escalated into gunfire. Earlier that day, Lorenz had allegedly texted Lattner a photo of a pointed gun, foreshadowing the violence that followed. Neighbors and investigators described a dispute that boiled over inside the home near Union Boulevard and Austin Bluffs Parkway, ending with Lattner mortally wounded.
Officers took Lorenz into custody and he was held without bond as detectives built the case. In July 2015 a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder and felony menacing with a weapon, concluding that he shot and killed his tenant during the January altercation. A judge later imposed a 37-year prison sentence, closing the criminal chapter of a killing that began as a landlord-tenant conflict and ended in tragedy. Public records and memorial listings identify the victim as Paul John Lattner II of Colorado Springs, formerly of Denver, and fix the date of death as January 23, 2015.
