DENVER — The fifth suspect wanted in connection with a crime spree in Denver last week that left an 18-year-old student dead was arrested Wednesday night in Greeley.
Samuel Robert Fussell, 18, was wanted by the Denver Police Department (DPD) on charges of burglary, first-degree burglary, felony menacing, first-degree auto theft, first-degree assault, and first-degree murder related to the crime that began late in the evening on Aug. 17.
A $27,000 reward was being offered to anyone who could help DPD find him, money police said came from community and family donations. Police said Thursday they had received "numerous" Crime Stoppers tips about Fussell.
The Greeley Police Department (GPD) said that on Aug. 25 its Special Enforcement Team (S.E.T.), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), and Denver Safe Streets learned that Fussell would be in the northern Colorado area.
Officers with GPD SET later positively identified Fussell as he got into a vehicle in Greeley and conducted a high-risk traffic stop of the vehicle in the area of 47th Avenue and 26th Street.
Fussell and two females who were in the vehicle with him were all taken into custody, according to GPD. The vehicle was towed from the area to be secured for a search warrant, GPD said.
All three were transported to Denver. It's unclear at this time how or if the two females are connected to the crime spree.
The other four suspects were arrested last week just a day after the crime spree:
- Isaiah Freeman, 18
- Seth Larhode, 21
- Aden Sides, 18
- Noah Loepp-Hall, 19
The suspects were arrested at two locations on Aug. 18. One was a home in the 3200 block of West Oxford Avenue in Sheridan and the other was a home in the 1300 block of South Umatilla Street in Denver. SWAT team members took the suspects into custody at both locations without incident.
At least one of the suspects was wanted on an escape warrant, but a DPD commander said he was not aware of what facility that suspect had escaped from or when that escape warrant was issued.
They were wanted in relation to a string of violent incidents, including a deadly shooting, that happened on Aug. 17.
DPD said initially they were connected to five incidents but have since uncovered a sixth incident linked to the men. It's also possible, according to DPD, that they could be linked to other crimes around the metro area.
The first of the six incidents happened around 10 p.m. on Aug. 17 when police received a report of a car in a parking lot on the 2700 block of West Alameda Avenue being broken into.
Witnesses reported having a gun pulled on them while confronting the individuals breaking into a car before the suspects left the scene in a stolen dark blue 2020 Toyota Camry with license plate number AGN Z29. Police said no injuries were reported in this incident.
Officers were then called to a reported carjacking incident around 10:50 p.m. near the intersection of East Colfax Avenue and Grape Street.
The suspects arrived in the stolen Camry, and police said one entered the victim's 2018 Honda CRV with Colorado license plate number CGOW44. When the victim moved to confront the suspect in his CRV, the suspect pointed a gun at him, police said. No injures were reported in this incident.
DPD said Thursday a business burglary occurred around 11 p.m. on the 1300 block of East Colfax Avenue.
About 10 minutes after the burglary, police said a man was walking in the area of North Lafayette Street and East Colfax Avenue when he was approached by several men wearing masks, ordered to the ground and robbed. During the incident, the victim was shot by one of the suspects and he was transported to the hospital in critical condition but is expected to survive, police said.
Around 11:35 p.m., police were called to the Yeshiva Toras Chaim school on the 1500 block of North Stuart Street for a reported shooting. Investigators believe the victim was walking outside of the school when the suspects approached and began shooting at him, police said.
The victim was identified by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner as 18-year-old Shmuel Silverberg, a student at the school. He was taken to the hospital with multiple gunshot injuries where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
DPD said it's not clear if there was any interaction between Silverberg and the suspects. Police said Thursday they believe the victims were targeted at random so at this time have no reason to believe the killing of Silverberg was a bias-motivated crime.
>The video below shows the suspects inside a Lakewood business, according to the business owner.
The next incident involving the suspects was a burglary at a Lakewood business on South Union Boulevard, where DPD said a gray 1998 Toyota RAV4 with Colorado license plate number AGN Z29 was stolen.
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