Luca Hanlon, a 19-year-old CU Boulder student, died Nov. 1 after a shooting at an off-campus Halloween party on University Hill. Another 19-year-old student was wounded. An 18-year-old Thornton man is being held without bond.
Police arrested Omar Perez in Thornton on the morning of Monday, Nov. 2, on suspicion of killing one student and wounding another, Boulder Reporting Lab reported. He is not a CU student. Shannon Carbone told Fox News Digital that prosecutors successfully argued Tuesday to hold him without bond, FOX 29 reported. He is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault and attempted first-degree murder, each alleging extreme indifference to the value of human life. Witness accounts in the arrest affidavit say he left the party and came back with six others, appearing to wear a SWAT-style uniform and a Purge mask, then allegedly opened fire after a resident put him in a headlock.
A Noise Call, Then a Return
Officers first went to a home in the 700 block of Marine Street around 9:58 p.m. on Oct. 31 for a noise complaint. They issued a nuisance-party citation. Hundreds of people left.
At 11:28 p.m. they were called back for gunshots. Boulder Reporting Lab placed the shooting at about 11:30 p.m. The large party those officers had cited was already breaking up. What witnesses described next was a return: Perez had been among the people who left, and he came back with six others. The group was asked to leave.
According to the affidavit, they became irate. A scuffle moved through the living room and onto the front porch. A witness told police Perez threatened to shoot up the place. A resident put him in a headlock. That, the affidavit says, is when he allegedly pulled a gun and fired.
Hanlon was shot in the neck. He died the next day at Boulder Community Health. The other student was shot in the leg. Dionne Waugh told Fox News Digital that police were withholding further updates on that student for privacy reasons.
Who Hanlon Was
Hanlon was from Pennsylvania. He was a second-year media production student in CU Boulder's College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. Jack Anderson, a friend, described him to Denver's ABC 7 as his best friend and a model citizen, FOX 29 reported.
The university had not immediately responded to requests for comment. The party was off campus. Perez, Carbone said, is not a CU student, and the arrest was in Thornton.
A Sister, Life360 and a Red Audi
FOX 29 reported that Perez's sister identified him from the clothes in photos Boulder police released, then checked the family's Life360 app. The Bold, citing the affidavit, reported that she turned him in after recognizing his face in doorbell-camera video. The district attorney did not confirm the source of the tip.
Relatives volunteered Life360. Police used it, The Bold reported, to track Perez from his home in Thornton to Boulder and back. FOX 29's account of the affidavit is more specific about the clock and the towns: the app put him at the Marine Street house around the time of the shooting, then traced a route through Westminster, Arvada and Keenesburg before he was back in Thornton. That is where officers arrested him Monday morning.
His sister also gave investigators a gun history. She said he had illegally bought a 10mm Glock on the street days before the shooting and posted photos of it on Instagram. She said that on Sept. 26 he accidentally shot himself in the calf, threw a revolver into bushes and replaced it. When he picked her up from work, she noticed a black Purge-looking mask on the floorboard of a newer red Audi sedan. She said three people were in the vehicle with him.
According to the affidavit, Perez told her they had been beaten by four men and his friends at an earlier party. That is his account to his sister, as the affidavit records it.
No Bond, and Two Names for Feb. 10
The charges split along the two students in the affidavit account. Murder is what prosecutors filed in Hanlon's death. First-degree assault and attempted first-degree murder are what they filed in the wounding. Boulder Reporting Lab reported that each count alleges extreme indifference to the value of human life.
Carbone said a first-degree murder conviction carries life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. She also said more charges will likely be filed. Dougherty told The Bold, "There are likely going to be additional charges filed as the investigation continues to move forward." The Colorado Public Defender's Office declined to comment. Waugh said further arrests or charges would prompt a news release. The investigation is ongoing.
Feb. 10, 2027, is the date both outlets put on the case. They don't describe the same proceeding. FOX 29 reported that Perez's preliminary hearing is scheduled that day. The Bold reported that the trial is scheduled for Feb. 10, and that Perez waived his right to a trial within 35 days of charges being filed. Both labels can't be the current setting. The shared fact is the day.
The People Police Asked the Public to Name
Boulder police had asked the public to identify three other people in released video and photos, two males and one female. One man wore an "Art the Clown" shirt. Another wore a red hoodie. Waugh later confirmed that everyone in the photos and video the department released had been identified.
That closed the identification request. It did not settle charging. FOX 29 reported that charges against those three remain unclear. They are also a different count from the six people witnesses said returned with Perez, and from the three his sister said were in the Audi. Those figures come from different moments, and the reporting does not treat them as one group.
Police are still taking tips at 303-441-3333 and through the department's evidence submission portal. If someone else is arrested, or if the additional charges prosecutors called likely are actually filed, Waugh said the department will put out a news release.
