Students woke up Wednesday morning to a text message alert informing them of the Boulder Police Department’s search for an “armed and dangerous” suspect near campus.
According to the Daily Camera, the alert came after a nightlong hunt for the suspect, 34-year-old Russell Daniels, whom Boulder police finally apprehended Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. on a Baseline Road bike path.
After a complaint reported suspicious activity in a motorhome at around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, two officers were dispatched to the scene. They made efforts to communicate with the man inside, later identified as Daniels, who refused to exit the RV.
A woman who held a restraining order against Daniels managed to escape the motorhome and warn the officers about the urgency of the situation. Shortly after, four shots fired from inside the vehicle.
While taking the woman to safety, officers saw Daniels flee the RV and run from the area. Upon examining the motorhome, they found a large quantity of blood and made the assumption that Daniels shot himself.
After receiving a call Wednesday morning from a woman in the 4000 block of Baseline Road who reported strange noises in her garage, police found a blood trail in the surrounding area and later discovered Daniels on the bike path.
Although he was conscious, he sustained a gunshot wound to his head that police believed to be self-inflicted. Officers also found him to be in possession of a .38-caliber handgun.
The incident resulted in several road closures, including sections of Baseline Road and Foothills Parkway, as well as heavy traffic on US-36 during the morning commute.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Eliza Radeka at Eliza.Radeka@colorado.edu.
