Ex-employer of Thornton murder-suicide suspect says he made threats

A man who police believe fatally shot his wife and then himself outside a worship hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Thornton had threatened to kill her and shoot a union representative after losing his job as an electrician last year, according to a court filing by his former employer.

Enoch Apodaca, 46, and Melissa Martinez, 44, were members of the congregation, police have said.

In an application for a protection order against Apodaca filed in December 2021, a representative of Sturgeon Electric Company Inc. wrote that Apodaca told a union representative he would shoot Martinez and the union representative, and then "will come after the people responsible" at the company for he and his wife losing their jobs. The application, first reported by The Denver Post, noted that Apodaca had been fired in June 2021 but did not say why.

After Sunday's suspected murder-suicide, the Adams County bomb squad responded to the worship hall, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 68 building and a home believed to be Apodaca's to check for explosives, said Adams County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Sgt. Adam Sherman. Three incendiary-style devices were found at the site of the Christmas Day shooting but were rendered safe, police have said.

Sherman on Wednesday referred questions about the other locations to Thornton police. A phone message was left with the police department seeking more details.

The Post also reported Wednesday that police in nearby Westminster had received seven calls to respond to Apodaca's address since September 2021, including one in which a person warned police that Apodaca was threatening violence, using drugs and withdrawing from his family after he and his wife lost their jobs. In the service records provided to the newspaper for three of those calls, there was no record that the cases progressed past the initial call, it said.