Commerce City’s crime reflects Colorado’s

Whether 23-year-old William Schuette’s intervention in a burglary in Commerce City a couple of years ago made him a vigilante or a Good Samaritan is a call we’ll have to leave to others. But his conviction last week for second-degree murder in the shooting death of burglary suspect James Martinez, 24, does make at least one thing clear: Colorado’s crime wave has hit home in our community and has left people on edge. 

The public is fed up with the criminal element and seems to be pushing back.

With five City Council seats plus the mayor’s office up for grabs on the Nov. 7 ballot in this fall’s Commerce City municipal election, it’s a good time to ask all candidates where they stand on the crime fight. How high do they prioritize support for law enforcement and a crackdown on crime? Should the city boost resources to Commerce City police? It would pay to get all candidates on the record about public safety.

The 2021 burglary that led to Schuette’s prosecution and conviction — for stopping one of the alleged burglars — makes clear how the current crime wave has blurred the line between criminals and innocent bystanders. 9News recounted the event, which occurred at a local food market:

The Commerce City Police Department responded to the shooting. Officers discovered a vehicle that had crashed into several other vehicles nearby, and investigators determined at the time that multiple men were involved in burglarizing the market. Police said … Schuette, a resident of a nearby apartment, told officers he shot at the suspects with a gun.

Schuette, according to an arrest affidavit, told officers "he was scared" after hearing the burglary in the store below him, so he "came out without clothes on and fired his firearm at the vehicle.”

Schuette will be sentenced Oct. 20.

Whatever you think of Schuette’s actions or conviction, it’s probably safe to say none of us wants all that gunplay, or crime in general, in our neighborhoods. The more crime there is in the first place, the more motivation there is for law-abiding citizens to react if they feel they aren’t being protected.

Let’s all be sure to grill the council candidates about their stance on the crime fight this fall.