Three high school students arrested after deadly rock-throwing incident just outside Denver

Three high school students have been arrested and charged with throwing a landscaping rock at a Colorado woman, killing her as she was driving just outside Denver, authorities said Wednesday.

Alexa Bartell, 20, ‘was killed when a rock was thrown through her windshield as she was driving’ north in the 10600 block of Indiana Street around 10:45 p.m. in Westminster on April 19, said Jefferson County Sheriff’s investigators in a statement.

Bartell’s was the last of several cars “hit by large landscaping boulders during a frenzy that began shortly after” 10 p.m. near 100th Avenue and Simms Street, officials said.

Public tips and cellphone data played a key role in the search for suspects and the arrests, sheriff’s spokesperson Jacki Kelley told reporters.

“This case has touched a lot of people deeply,” Kelley said. “She was a beautiful young woman with her whole life ahead of her who was just driving home, and her life ended as a result of these acts. It was shocking to a community, and people wanted to know who was implied. “

Alexa Bartel. (Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office)

Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, Joseph Koenig and Zachary Kwak, all 18, were taken into custody at their home in Arvada, according to the sheriff’s statement.

All three are 12th graders at Jefferson County Public Schools, Kelley said. One attends Ralston Valley Secondary School, another Standley Lake Secondary School and a third is enrolled in an online program, she said.

A school district representative could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Two suspects were arrested at 10:59 p.m. Tuesday and a third at 2 a.m. Wednesday, Kelley told reporters. They all lived with their parents.

Sheriff’s investigators called Bartell’s family in the middle of the night to inform them of the arrests.

“They’re just grateful,” Kelley said. “They always suffer the greatest possible loss.”

The boulder is what killed Bartell and not a later crash, which took place about 20 miles northwest of Denver and 10 miles southeast of Boulder, officials said.

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“The rock went through Alexa Bartell’s windshield, hitting her and killing her,” Kelley told NBC News on Wednesday. “The boulders we have featured in this detective series are all about 4-6 inches tall and weigh about 3-5 pounds each. They are large landscaping boulders.”

The suspects were traveling in a black 2016 Chevy Silverado; it was not immediately clear who was driving or who threw the rock that killed Bartell, officials said.

“We believe the vehicle was traveling in the opposite direction of our victims,” ​​Kelley said.

All three suspects were arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder by extreme indifference, the sheriff said.

While first-degree murder is typically associated with an intended victim and a motive, Colorado’s Extreme Indifference Law is for defendants who intended to kill someone — not just a targeted individual, Ann England said. , professor of clinical law at the University of Colorado.

“Pulling out an AK-47 and shooting into a crowd of people, there’s no question you intended to kill,” even if you weren’t targeting a specific person, England said.

“Throwing a rock (and charging it with first degree murder) is going to be tough. I mean, is throwing a rock a known risk (to possibly kill someone)? Throwing a rock at a moving car now that someone’s dead seems obvious, right? But before that? I’m not totally sure.

It was not immediately clear whether the three men had hired or been assigned attorneys to speak on their behalf.

Phone calls to publicly listed phone numbers for the Colorado parents of Koenig, Kwak and Karol-Chik went unanswered Wednesday.

The three teenagers were due to make their first court appearance on Thursday morning.

Kelley said she remembers individual instances of rocks or bricks being thrown from bridges over the years in Colorado, but never a string of such reckless acts.

“These suspects went from place to place throwing large rocks through the windshields of moving vehicles. We have never seen this before.”

This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com

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