LAKEWOOD, Colo. – A 15-year-old boy from Lakewood has been arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in the deadly stabbing of an adult woman in Longmont, police said Sunday.
Longmont Police responded to The Shores at McIntosh Lake apartments just after 6 p.m. Saturday after getting reports of a disturbance in the area.
At the apartment complex, police found an injured woman who was taken to Longmont United Hospital where she later died.
Officials haven't identified the victim but the principal of Green Mountain High School in Lakewood sent out a letter identifying her as Makayla Grote, a 2016 graduate of the school. Principal Colleen Owens also said the suspect was recently a student at the school.
Owens said counselors would be at the school between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday.
Michael Brown, who lives at the complex, told Denver7 he heard commotion outside his door and found the victim, who had multiple stab wounds, covered in blood on the second-floor breezeway.
"I saw a girl lying at the bottom of the stair steps. I screamed out to her, ‘Are you ok?’ She didn't answer so I ran up to her. I saw that she was bleeding," Brown said.
As he assisted the woman, Brown said he saw the suspect — wearing all black and a motorcycle helmet — walk down from the third-floor holding what he said looked like a folding knife.
"He started walking towards me. When he saw that I saw what he was wearing and holding, he started speeding up."
He said the boy then started rushing towards him, at which point Brown ran back into his apartment, locked his door and went to grab his gun to protect his son, an 8-month-old who was inside the apartment at the time.
"I thought that he was going to kill me. I really did," the former Navy Corpsman and new father, said. "I didn't know what to do, and my first thought was my child."
The juvenile suspect, who has not been identified, fled the scene prior to police arriving at the complex, according to Detective Sgt. Matthew Cage from the Longmont Police Department.
"I’ve been kicking myself that I didn't try to tackle him," Brown said.
Still, Brown shared a small memory of the woman.
"She was really nice. She seemed very sweet. She’s walking her dogs most of the time I saw her."
The last time Brown saw her was Saturday night, "[I] was holding her hand while she was taking her last breath."
The teen suspect was arrested seven hours later, at around 1:01 a.m. on Sunday in Lakewood, according to police.
The Longmont Police Department is conducting this homicide investigation along with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office and the Boulder County District Attorney's Office.
The Longmont Times-Call reports this is the second homicide in the City of Longmont this year.