A 27-year-old man is in Pitkin County Jail for an alleged midnight shooting spree in the quiet riverside community of Redstone.
Nathaniel Taylor allegedly pulled out of the Crystal River Park subdivision after midnight Tuesday morning in his parents’ Toyota pickup truck while reportedly drunk and wearing a bulletproof vest packed with magazines of ammunition, and fortified with two shotguns and a rifle.
Calls reporting gunshots coming from the car began streaming into the police dispatch center at 12:21 a.m. Taylor, who lives in Redstone, swerved off the road four times while attempting to get out of the subdivision and firing out of the window into the night, an arrest affidavit said.
While Pitkin County sheriff’s deputies were en route to the scene, they received a call from a Redstone resident who identified himself as with Taylor. The neighbor reportedly drove toward the gunshots when he heard them, and found Taylor at the bottom of a hill. He had apparently driven off the highway and rolled over while heading south towards Marble. The caller said he had taken a rifle and a shotgun from Taylor, and taken him to his Elk Lane home.
A Colorado State Patrol trooper who was first to arrive at the wrecked pick-up said another rifle with a scope on it was found in the car.
When the neighbor pulled into his driveway with Taylor, authorities say, Taylor pointed a shotgun at the neighbor’s father in the driveway. But the man was able to coax him into putting down the gun.
“He put his hands up and said something like ‘Whoa, wait. Why are you doing this?’” said Pitkin County Undersheriff Joe DiSalvo. “And the guy handed over the gun.”
Reached by telephone at his home yesterday, the man who was allegedly threatened declined comment. “I don’t like reporters — living or dead,” the man said.
Authorities say Taylor was cooperative when they arrived — a total of 11 officers responded — although he was generally unresponsive and his inebriated speech was “slurred and almost incoherent,” according to his arrest affidavit.
On the 50-mile ride to the Pitkin County Jail, Taylor reportedly vomited repeatedly in the back of Sheriff’s Deputy Ann Stephenson’s patrol cruiser. “He was a puking mess,” DiSalvo said. “Ann deserves a medal for dealing with that.”
Authorities are unclear as to where Taylor intended to drive, whether he intended to harm anyone in particular (if anyone at all), or why he was wearing body armor. They said there is some indication he harbored resentment after being rejected entrance to the U.S. military.
Taylor has not offered investigators a motive, and reportedly says he was blacked-out drunk during the incident. He sustained minor injuries in the rollover accident, and was cleared by doctors at Aspen Valley Hospital before going to jail.
Taylor is being held on $35,000 bond and faces one felony menacing charge, along with misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment, prohibitive use of a weapon, drunken driving, failure to notify police of an accident and careless driving.
No injuries were reported from the alleged gunshots, and authorities are investigating how much, if any, damage they caused.
andrew@aspendailynews.com
