Man accused of vandalism spree across Denver metro area, victim says "it is just totally heartbreaking"
Windows smashed, artwork defaced, flags cut down and a garden destroyed: a 42-year-old man has been accused of a string of vandalism cases from Aurora to Highlands Ranch.
Court records allege Worku Woldemariam cut down the American and Colorado flags outside the Douglas County Sheriff's Office substation on July 27, throwing one in the trash and another down a drain.
The day after he allegedly tore down those flags in Douglas County, Aurora's Harar Market owner Wend Wesen says Woldemariam used a rock to smash artwork from his store.
"I hear like a bump, like a big bump sounding. I'm like, 'What happened?' And when I go out, he was dragging this picture right here, and he was dragging all the way outside, and he was hitting with a big stone," said Wesen. "And I was like, 'What are you doing, sir?' He's like, 'I don't like him. I don't like him,' and he keep hitting."
Wesen says Woldemariam vandalized multiple Jesus posters.
"It's not safe anymore," said Wesen. "That's why I was upset."
He called Aurora police, but they didn't come until the next day when, shockingly, Wesen said Woldemariam walked back in the door.
"The police already recognized him in the camera, and he [the officer] see him, like he was walking here. He was trying to break another one, and they caught him right there," Wesen explained.
Woldemariam was issued a summons for criminal mischief, but police did not arrest him.
On Aug. 3, the Aurora Police Department says Woldemariam threw a rock through the window of a King Soopers Starbucks and tossed propane tanks around; a warrant was later issued for his arrest.
But the same day, he was arrested by Douglas County authorities in the flag case. Two days later, he was released on bond.
Two days after that, the owner of Nugg's Ice Cream on Colfax says a man who appears to be Woldemariam threw rocks through the shop's windows. The shop's owner identified him as the same man, but Denver police wouldn't confirm any details in the investigation, saying no arrests have been made.
The next day, an urban garden on E. 16th Avenue in Aurora was targeted.
"This is our Denver Urban Gardens food forest," said Urban Garden food forest manager Matthew King. "The community garden here is a lot of refugees from several different countries, and if they don't have this in the summertime, they don't eat. They grow their food here, and then they come here to have socialization, and the children play. If we don't have this place, they have nowhere to go."
King says one of the gardeners witnessed a man damaging a water tank on the property and called him. He says, when the gardener's husband tried to approach Woldemariam, he was threatened.
"Her husband tried to ask the guy what he was doing, and the guy came at him with a rock and a stick, and so when I got here about 12:45, I called 911 and said there's some guy ripping the place to pieces and going after some of our gardeners," King said.
For hours, King says he was forced to watch Woldemariam destroy the garden.
"Pulled the beehives off. He jumped the fence over here to get to this, and then he started tearing people's gardens apart and taking food out of their gardens. He ripped up some of the pumpkins we had here. Now we don't have any left," King said. "'Why are the police not showing up?' was the number one thing."
When Aurora police arrived, Woldemariam had reportedly fallen asleep in the garden. Officers arrested him and brought him to the Adams County Jail, where he remains.
"I have worked 20 years to get this to be nice out here, and then to have people come in to destroy it is just totally heartbreaking," said King. "He's just someone tearing it apart."
Woldemariam faces three active criminal mischief cases in Colorado. According to court records, he has been involved in other criminal cases before.
In a 2013 Denver case on similar charges, he was found incompetent to stand trial, and the case was dismissed. In Virginia, he was found not guilty due to insanity for a 2014 assault case. Court records indicate he's also been arrested in other states for arson and robbery.
"This guy must be transient. It seems like he's bounced around a bit and never ever really been held to account for whatever he's alleged to have done," said George Brauchler, district attorney for the 23rd Judicial District.
Brauchler blames Democratic state lawmakers for reducing jail time for misdemeanors like this, and making changes to bond and competency laws.
"Our state legislature, over the past 10 years, has engaged in a concerted effort to make it harder and harder and harder to hold people accountable for criminal violations," Brauchler said. "For crimes like this that fit under that second-class misdemeanor and below charge range, the system has no answers. It provides no relief for the community, no help for these guys. The system just basically says, 'Oh well, I guess we'll see again when you get arrested.' In this particular case, until this guy crosses a threshold of committing bigger crimes and making more victims with worse outcomes, the system can't do anything for people like this."
Democratic Colorado Rep. Javier Mabrey tells CBS Colorado that competency is a constitutional principle. He says recent legislation he sponsored helped reduce the competency waitlist and connect people with resources. The bill mandates that low-level charges be dismissed if a defendant is found incompetent to proceed. Mabrey says this requires a district attorney's consent. The bill also created a wraparound care program designed to divert people with behavioral-health issues away from the criminal justice system.
Mabrey says there has been work in the legislature on sentencing and bond reform. He says there is no proven correlation between increased criminal penalties and a reduction in crime, and that "longer prison sentences are not linked to safer communities."
But the victims of the recent acts of vandalism are concerned about what this means for the community and are left to pick up the pieces.
"To release people with psychotic or drug addiction back into a community where it's violating other people's safety and their rights, that is unconscionable," King said. "This is food that now will never be realized by the community. Frustration, sadness. Because it's our life. I've been working on this garden for decades to try to get it here."
They also wonder if he'll be back.
"When we have an individual that is hurting the community. The community needs to deal with that individual," King said.
"If this guy tries to attack somebody, I mean, we'll be in danger," said Wesen.
Wesen and King worry a police response may not come quick enough if that happens.
"My heart goes out to the guy. If he doesn't have any food or any family to support him," said King. "I fear for his safety because sooner or later he's going to do it to the wrong person."
"It is so scary. You see some people around like that. We even have a panic button. I don't think they get here on time. So I know there is some resource issue, but at the same time, it is so tough for me," said Wesen.
Aurora police tell CBS Colorado that in the garden case, the call was classified as Priority 3. They received 184 Priority 1 and 2 calls the same day, which include reports of imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.
