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Investigators work to see if series of shootings in Fort Collins, Larimer County are related

David Moore, spokesman for Larimer County's Sheriff's Office, said the number of shootings and the similarities between them is unusual.

KUSA — Several recent shootings in Fort Collins and Larimer County remain unsolved, and investigators are trying to figure out if there’s any connection between them.

On Sept. 12, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office responded to a reported shooting on West Vine Drive. The victim, Colorado state Senate candidate Rebecca Crandall, said she was sitting in her truck in the driveway when someone shot her truck.

Deputies said the bullet struck the tailgate of the truck and a few things in the bed of the truck. Nobody was injured.

A spokesman for LCSO said the investigation is ongoing, and it’s not yet clear if the shooting was random or targeted. Nobody is in custody.

On June 9, deputies responded to another shooting about half a mile away.

Someone reported hearing gunshots on North Impala Drive. When deputies arrived, they found bullets in a residential building. Someone was home at the time, but not injured.

In May, Fort Collins Police responded to two more shootings. They happened just a few days apart, but at the same location. On May 7 and May 10, police said someone shot “property” on Gold Drive. Again, nobody was injured.

Fort Collins Police believe the two incidents on Gold Drive are related to each other and not random. Police said they have received no information linking the two shootings in May to LCSO’s investigations from June and September.

David Moore, spokesman for Larimer County’s Sheriff’s Office, said the number of shootings and the similarities between them is unusual.

“This is unusual for Larimer County and why we take it so seriously,” he said. “When these things are reported to us, we do everything we can to try and figure out what happened and as long as it takes, we’ll keep going until we figure it out.”

Moore also serves as the spokesman for the Northern Colorado Task Force, which is investigating a series of shootings from 2015.

He said the Task Force believes the recent shootings have no connection to the shootings from several years ago.

“Anytime something like this happens, anywhere in the region really, local law enforcement will reach out to the task force or law enforcement will reach out to the local law enforcement agency when they’re made aware of an incident like this,” Moore said. “To try and find out some of the details to compare them to the investigations that the task force is conducting to see if it’s something they need to pull into the task force – if there’s enough similarities or any type of links with forensic evidence or anything like that. We are not there with this case and the Task Force. The Task Force has decided that this case [on West Vine and North Impala] is not associated with what they are investigating.”

The Cranston campaign sent the following statement about the shooting outside her home:

Ms. Cranston was sitting in her car in her own driveway last Wednesday when an unknown suspect shot the tailgate of her pickup truck. The story...is still developing as the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department investigates with no leads to date.

“While we do not yet know who committed this act or what their motivations were, this incident comes after an alarming pattern of behavior throughout my campaign that has absolutely crossed the line,” said Cranston. “I hope to spend the remainder of my campaign respectfully discussing and debating the issues that matter most to our community and neighbors. I hope this incident will only reinforce the importance of Coloradans working together regardless of political party to demand a world where everyone, including women, can safely advocate for change.”

Ms. Cranston has filed multiple police reports for, among other incidents, having mail stolen, being followed, and being photographed by strangers in front of her residence. In addition, Ms. Cranston’s opponent has verified traveling to her home without her prior knowledge.

Cranston, a Democrat, is running for a state Senate seat in District 15. Her opponent is Republican Rob Woodward.

A spokesman for Woodward called the shooting “awful” and said they were sorry to hear it happened, but said the candidate had nothing to do with it.

He said neither Woodward, his campaign, nor any volunteers were involved in stealing mail from Cranston or following her.

Addressing campaign tensions, the spokesman said any assumption Woodward’s team was running a “no holds barred” campaign was untrue. He said the campaign did have questions about residency requirements, and that there was a photo taken of Cranston’s home from a public street several months ago.

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said, again, they can’t yet say whether the shooting was random or targeted.

“As we would with any investigation, we will look into any possibility whatsoever until we can rule it out,” Moore said.

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