Denver police arrest 4 of 5 suspects in crime spree, homicide

DENVER – Four out of five suspects wanted in connection with a crime spree and homicide late Tuesday night have been arrested, the Denver Police Department announced Thursday afternoon.

The police department said Isaiah Freeman, 18, Seth Larhode, 21, Aden Sides, 18, and Noah Loepp-Hall, 19, were arrested Wednesday and booked in the downtown detention center.

They are being held for investigation on charges including first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, menacing, first-degree auto theft and first-degree assault, according to the department and court records.

Police also said they had identified the fifth suspect and were working to find him as of 1 p.m.

“We continue to send our condolences to those who were impacted by these terrible crimes,” said Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen. “The suspects were taken into custody after Denver Police investigators, members of our Crime Lab, the Denver District Attorney’s Office, and local and federal partners worked tirelessly during the past 36 hours to identify and arrest these suspects.”

The department said at this point, "it appears that the victims were targeted at random."

A Seth Larhode with the same birthday also pleaded guilty to a juvenile count of felony assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury and received a five-year sentence to the Division of Youth Services in 2018 after shooting a friend in the head, according to the Longmont Times-Call.

At a news conference Thursday, Major Crimes Division Commander Matt Clark said an additional burglary had since been linked to the group.

Clark said the outstanding suspect is 18-year-old Samuel Fussell and that an arrest warrant had been issued for him on the same charges the others face. Metro Denver Crime Stoppers has a reward of up to $27,000 for anonymous tips that lead to Fussell's arrest.

The suspects had possibly all come to know each other at the Lookout Mountain youth correctional facility, Clark said.

The crime spree started at around 10 p.m., when the Denver Police Department received a report of someone breaking into a car in the area of W. Alameda Avenue near the intersection of Clay Street. Police said the suspects fled the area in a stolen 2020 blue Toyota Camry.

At around 10:50 p.m., police were called to investigate a carjacking at E. Colfax Avenue and Grape Street. Nobody was injured in this incident, police said, but the suspects stole a 2018 Maroon Honda CRV.

Around 11 p.m. a business on the 1300 block of E. Colfax Ave. was burglarized.

Then, police responded to a shooting around 11:10 p.m. along the 1500 block of N. Lafayette near Cheesman Park.

One of the suspects fired a round. One person was brought to a hospital, where they remain in critical, but stable condition, police said. Police initially said a carjacking took place, but later corrected themselves to say it was a robbery. Some of the victim's belongings were stolen.

A few minutes later, at 11:35 p.m., Denver police tweeted that they were investigating a shooting along the 1500 block of Stuart Street near Yeshiva Toras Chaim. Police said during a news conference Wednesday that preliminary investigation shows the victim in this shooting, identified as 18-year-old Shmuel Silverberg, was walking out of the school when the suspects approached him and began firing.

Silverberg was taken to a hospital and died, police said. Police said Thursday the shooting of Silverberg does not appear to be bias-motivated at this time.

Investigators found bullet holes in a car in the front of the school and a window.

Sometime later, investigators learned that suspects were also involved in a burglary of a business in Lakewood. During that burglary, a 1998 gray Toyota RAV4 was stolen.

Police officials said Thursday that two of the three vehicles involved had since been recovered. Clark said investigators were still looking to find out whether there were other crimes the group may have committed across the metro area on Tuesday night.