COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Those who live around Remington Park are looking to take long-term steps to secure the safety of their neighborhood after a June stabbing resulted in a death.

On June 17, police were called to Remington Park for a report of a stabbing. First responders found a gravely injured man and attempted to resuscitate him, but he died at the scene. Police identified the victim as Tadeo Francisco Villavicencio-Ramirez.

Nearly one month after his death, community members gathered at the CSPD Stetson Hills substation to talk with police, city leaders, utility, and D49 officials about safety solutions.

Organizer and community member Joshua Bouwkamp said the killing of Villavicencio-Ramirez is the final straw after multiple incidents have made residents feel unsafe.

“I see things all the time, we have street racing, people doing drugs down at the park, all kinds of bad stuff going on down there so we just want to make sure that our voices are heard,” he said.

Bouwkamp said his goal was to get more lights around the park and get more of a police presence around the park after dark.

With family members of Villavicencio-Ramirez in attendance, people spent the next two-and-a-half hours sharing their complaints and working on creating solutions.

With the help of police and utility officials, community members began the process of creating a neighborhood watch and getting more street lights around the park.

District Six councilman Mike O’Malley said the meeting went how he expected it to go.

“We were able to get them to be able to say, ‘Look, it’s not just a policing problem, this is a community problem and we need to be able to pull together and fix it’, and I applaud them for coming here to do that,”’ he said.

Police officials also told residents they will focus on the park over the coming weeks.

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A federal judge in Denver ruled against the plaintiffs in a voter intimidation lawsuit Thursday, ending a trial early after finding the organizations behind the suit hadn’t presented sufficient evidence against a group of Donald Trump supporters.

U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney issued her ruling Thursday morning. The trial had started Monday, more than two years after the lawsuit was filed by a trio of voting and civil rights organizations, including the local chapters of the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, against the U.S. Election Integrity Plan.

That group, made up of supporters of the Republican former president and tied to prominent and discredited election conspiracy theorists, had been accused of questioning residents of high-density areas and places where ethnic and racial minorities live about their votes.

The lawsuit said the group, which has made false claims of mass voter fraud, also photographed voters’ homes as part of a pattern of “door-to-door voter intimidation.”

But Sweeney found that the evidence and testimony presented by the plaintiffs at trial to prove intimidation were insufficient, according to Colorado Newsline, which first reported the ruling Thursday morning. The defense had made a motion to end the trial early. Sweeney was appointed to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.

“We are disappointed in this ruling and are exploring all appeal options,” said Courtney Hostetler, one of the attorneys representing the civil and voting rights groups, in a statement.

Cameron Powell and Michael Wynne, attorneys for one of the three defendant members of the election group, praised the decision Thursday morning. They said the allegations against their client were related to speech, not any actual conduct.

Wynne said the three members of the group had been “dragged through the mud” by the lawsuit.

The case relied in part on a post-Civil War anti-Ku Klux Klan law that sought to protect Black voters who were being intimidated from using the ballot box by white Americans.

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Originally Published: July 18, 2024 at 11:47 a.m.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Smoke, fire trucks, water hoses! A neighborhood just northeast of Palmer Park is going to be busy with fire activity for the next month, but don’t be alarmed — it’s all for show!

Springs firefighters kicked off a month-long training exercise Tuesday at Austin Bluffs and Goldenrod Drive.

“Fire apparatus will be in the area performing firefighting tasks, including ladder deployments, search, and hose evolutions. Theatrical smoke will be utilized and may be visible. Please do not call 911 for the fire training evolutions, as they are planned events,” CSFD said in a social media post.

Expect to see this activity Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Regular training helps keep firefighters in tiptop mental and physical shape when the real thing happens.

“We would like to thank our partners at Colorado Springs Utilitiesfor helping to make this training possible for our firefighters,” CSFD said.

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