A dispute between a driver and children riding e-motos at a Wellington neighborhood park escalated Sunday evening into a confrontation, ending with deputies arresting a 39-year-old man accused of grabbing a rifle, hurling racial slurs and threatening to shoot people while kids stood nearby. John Alexander Hunter now faces six felony menacing charges along with bias-motivated-crime, child-abuse and weapons counts tied to the October 11 incident.
Argument Over E-Motos Turns Into 911 Calls About a Gun
The confrontation began when a driver interacted with children riding e-motos at the park, according to a report from reporterherald.com. Dispatchers received multiple 911 calls just before 6 p.m. reporting an argument involving a gun, according to the Larimer County Sheriff's Office. The driver made threatening statements before driving away and later returning to the scene on foot, the sheriff's office said.
Witnesses told deputies that the man retrieved a rifle and threatened to shoot people while making racial slurs during the exchange, the station's report states. Deputies also reported that he made threatening statements while other children were around, separate from the initial group involved in the dispute, per the same account.
Deputies De-escalate, Make Arrest at Wellington Home
Responding deputies contacted Hunter at his home in the 4000 block of River Run Lane in Wellington. The sheriff's office said Hunter was uncooperative, but deputies managed to de-escalate the situation and took him into custody without anyone being physically hurt.
Hunter, born July 6, 1987, is now facing six counts of felony menacing, a class 5 felony; three counts of bias-motivated crimes, a class 1 misdemeanor; three counts of child abuse, a class 2 misdemeanor; a class 1 misdemeanor charge of prohibited use of a weapon; and a petty offense of disorderly conduct, according to the sheriff's office. Larimer County Court set his bond at $7,500 cash, the article notes.
Sheriff Calls Hate-Driven Threats Near Children Especially Heinous
Sheriff John Feyen said violent threats and targeting people because of their ethnicity will not be tolerated, and that the behavior is especially heinous when children are present, according to the sheriff's office. He said he was grateful to deputies for their rapid response and skillful de-escalation of the situation.
“Fortunately, no one got physically hurt, but the harm caused by hatred is very real,” Feyen said, per the sheriff's office statement. The agency also noted that roadway safety remains an ongoing topic of community and statewide discussion, and that the Larimer County Sheriff's Office plays a continual role in education and enforcement efforts around it.
An introduced bill in Colorado's General Assembly concerning confiscation or retention of identification documents applies its bias-motivated-crime language to specified conduct in the bill. For that conduct, it describes a bias-motivated crime as an offense committed with intent to intimidate or harass another person, in whole or in part because of that person's actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin, among other characteristics, according to a partial excerpt from Colorado's General Assembly. The charges against Hunter remain accusations, and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
