The man on trial for shooting and killing an RTD transit security officer was found guilty by a jury on Thursday.
Joshua Cummings was convicted of first-degree murder for the Jan. 31, 2017 killing of Scott Von Lanken. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by 9NEWS, on the night of the shooting, two women approached Von Lanken just after 11 p.m. to ask him whether they might be able to catch a light rail train. Just then, one of the women told police “she observed the suspect approach the victim from behind a place a gun near his neck.”
The woman said “she heard the suspect say something to the effect of, ‘Do what you are told.’”
A moment later, Cummings fired, then ran off as a mortally wounded Von Lanken crumpled to the ground.
Cummings was arrested after officers found him hiding on a patio outside a condominium about two blocks from the scene of the shooting at 16th and Wynkoop streets near Union Station.
Von Lanken, 56, was a contract worker for RTD from Allied Universal. He was married to his wife Shellie for 35 years and together they have twin daughters who are 32 years old.
"He has always just worked so hard just to take care of them. The stress that he carried was tremendous on this," Shellie told 9NEWS last February. "He did it because he just loved his family so much."
At the time, Barb Archer, the commander of the Denver Police Department’s Major Crimes Division, called the attack “completely unprovoked.”
Denver Police Chief Robert White said local authorities had no prior contact with Cummings and that his only criminal history was a misdemeanor charge in another state.
