Boy killed in Colorado reservation shooting was in bed when he was hit
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[December 27, 2024]
By COLLEEN SLEVIN
DENVER (AP) — A 7-year-old boy who died in a shooting that left 24
bullet holes in a home on a tribal reservation in Colorado was lying
next to his father in bed when he was hit, according to court documents
unsealed Thursday.
Zackieus Lang told investigators that his son was on the right side of
the bed and he was sleeping on the left when he heard gunfire just after
midnight on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, according to an arrest
affidavit for Jeremiah Hight, who is charged in the shooting.
The FBI, which investigates serious crimes on the Ute Mountain Ute
reservation in the Four Corners region where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah
and Colorado meet, did not provide a motive. However, one person who was
drinking with Hight and others in the hours before the shooting told an
FBI agent that Hight had said he planned to “shoot up Zackieus Lang’s
house", according to the arrest affidavit.
Hight was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon on a mesa west of Oljato,
Utah, on the Navajo Nation reservation by members of the Navajo Police
Department’s dog team and the Bureau of Indian Affairs drug enforcement
division, Navajo police said. Authorities had been looking for Hight for
several days before finding him in a remote area, Navajo police
spokesperson Chrissy Largo said.
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A sign marks Navajo Drive, as Sentinel Mesa stands in the distance
in Oljato-Monument Valley, Utah on the Navajo Reservation, April 30,
2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Investigators found 24 bullet casings from an “assault-style rifle”
at the shooting site in Colorado. They were recovered near where a
person was seen shooting on a surveillance video, according to the
affidavit.
Lang said he saw his son, Zamias Lang, immediately “struggling in
pain.”
Hight's arrest came about 24 hours after the FBI announced a $10,000
reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction in the
fatal shooting at the home in Towaoc, Colorado, on the Ute Mountain
Ute Reservation. The town is about 110 miles (177 kilometers) east
of where Hight was found.
Hight briefly appeared in federal court in Flagstaff, Arizona,
Thursday. He did not contest that he was the person being sought in
Zamias Lang's shooting, so he will be sent to Colorado to face
charges of second-degree murder and assault with a dangerous weapon
in Indian Country and using a firearm during a violent crime,
according to court documents.
A message seeking comment was left Thursday for Hight’s lawyer, Luke
Stephen Mulligan.
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