A motorcyclist racing east on Interstate 70 early on July 4 was shot in the head amid a hail of bullets fired from a Ford pickup truck in pursuit, Denver police say — and two men have been arrested in that killing.
Denver police officers over the weekend arrested Cesar Ramirez-Rivera, 21, and Nelson Miranda-Rivas, 25, who were jailed for investigation of first-degree murder, according to arrest affidavits reviewed Monday by The Denver Post.
The motorcyclist went down on I-70 near the east end of a tunnel around the intersection with Colorado Boulevard at 12:22 a.m. and was taken to a Denver Health Medical Center emergency room. Doctors at 3:07 a.m. pronounced him dead with a single gunshot wound to the head, the affidavits said.
He later was identified as Kyle Van Loozenoord, 32.
Police closed eastbound I-70 and investigators later found more than 20 bullet casings on the highway.
Witnesses, including a Denver firefighter, described a high-speed chase involving a dark Ford 350 truck along I-70 from where the tunnel starts east of Washington Street.
One witness heard gunshots and when he looked up “there was a guy hanging out of the passenger window, leaning out forward, and he kept hearing the gunshots going off, and that was when he realized they were shooting at the guy on the bike,” the affidavit said. “The bike was still ahead of the truck, so then the truck started to go around the bike. Soon after, he saw the guy on the ground and the bike was a little bit further away from him.”
Surveillance video from another vehicle, and from Colorado Department of Transportation cameras on I-70, also captured the chase and “clearly shows a brown or gray Ford pickup truck intentionally travel up behind the victim at a high rate of speed,” an affidavit said. “The victim was traveling on his motorcycle in the express lane on eastbound I-70 near Josephine Street. An unknown person was shown apparently firing multiple gunshots out of the front passenger window of the Ford pickup at the victim from behind and as they travel around the victim, passing him.”
Denver police issued a bulletin for the truck. A Thornton police officer found it later in the week. Denver police made the arrests of the two men in the truck outside a FedEx store in north Denver. Police said in the affidavit that they found three bags of methamphetamine on Ramirez-Rivera when they made the arrests.
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