Steven Michael Stagner: Rifle, Colorado Shooting Spree (2001)
Overview
Late on the night of July 3, 2001 (around 11:45 p.m.), 42-year-old Steven Michael “Mike” Stagner opened fire near the City Market grocery in Rifle, Colorado, then moved toward the adjacent Bookcliff/Bookcliffs trailer and RV park. Four people were killed and three others wounded; all of the victims were Hispanic. Witness accounts and subsequent reporting described the attack as racially motivated. Stagner was arrested shortly afterward the same night. He used a .38-caliber Charter Arms revolver during the shootings.
Victims (names, dates, locations)
- Juan Manuel (Juan Manual) Hernandez-Carrillo, 44 — fatally shot while speaking on a pay phone outside the City Market grocery, Rifle, Colorado — July 3, 2001.
- Angelica (also reported as Anjelica) Toscano, 19 — shot near the City Market pay phones/parking lot; she died from her injuries roughly three days later — shot July 3, 2001; died July 6, 2001.
- Melquiades Medrano-Velasquez, 23 — fatally shot as the gunman moved from the grocery area toward/into the nearby Bookcliff trailer or RV park — July 3, 2001.
- Juan Carlos Medrano-Velasquez, 22 — fatally shot in the same incident near/within the Bookcliff trailer or RV park — July 3, 2001.
Sequence of Events
According to contemporaneous reports and later histories, Stagner began at the City Market’s outdoor pay phones, shooting Hernandez-Carrillo first. He then crossed the parking lot, where Toscano was struck while on the phone with family in Mexico, before moving toward the Bookcliff trailer/RV park area, where the Medrano-Velasquez brothers were killed. In total, four were killed and three wounded before police took Stagner into custody the same night.
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