A University of Colorado-Colorado Springs student threatened to kill his roommate over complaints about trash a month before he was accused of shooting him to death alongside another person.
Nicholas Jordan, 25, was arrested on Monday and charged with killing Samuel Knopp, 24, and Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, on February 16, as CrimeOnline reported. New details about the shooting were revealed when an arrest affidavit was unsealed by the judge on Friday, The Associated Press reported.
According to the court documents, Knopp and Jordan lived in a pod-style dorm room with four bedrooms attached to a common living area. Another roommate told police that he and Knopp had frequently complained about Jordan’s housecleaning as well as his marijuana and cigarette smoking.
It’s not clear if the university took any steps to rectify the situation; a spokesman declined comment.
The incident that led to the threat, the roommate said, began when Knopp cleaned up trash Jordan had left in the living area and left it in a bag by his door.
“Mr. Jordan threatened Mr. Knopp and told him that he would ‘kill him’ and there would be consequences if Mr. Jordan was asked to take out the trash again,” police said in the document.
The day before the fatal shooting, the document says, Jordan filed a request to withdraw from the school. Police said his dorm room was empty when they arrived to investigate the shooting but his electronic access number had been used to enter the building twice in the early hours of February 16. About 20 minutes after his last entry — at about 6 a.m. — the document says, surveillance video captured someone running from the building.
The roommate heard the gunshots at about that time and called 911, reporting the gunshots and “the immediate sound of a person moaning,” the affidavit says, according to USA Today.
Police said a warrant for Jordan’s arrest was issued that day, but they did not publicly identify him as a suspect until his arrest on Monday about three miles from campus, according to the AP. He was in his car, they said — apparently with all his belongings — including the gun police believe he used to kill Knopp and Montgomery and a fully loaded AK-47.
Jordan’s lawyer, public defender Nick Rogers, objected to unsealing the arrest affidavit during Friday’s hearing, saying that it would lead to his client being “prosecuted in the media.” He did not address any of the allegations in the document and asked, unsuccessfully, that his client be released without bail.
The judge increased Jordan’s bail from $1 million to $5 million after prosecutors argued he was a flight risk, USA Today said.
Jordan was a junior at the school studying account, the AP said. Knopp “was a senior studying music and a beloved member of the Visual and Performing Arts department. He was an accomplished guitar player and an extremely talented musician,” University Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet said in a statement. Montgomery was not a student.
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[Featured image: Samuel Knopp/GoFundMe and Celie Rain Montgomery/Colorado Springs Police Department]
