KEENESBURG — A man and his teenage son were found dead after an overnight standoff here with the Weld County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, which was attempting to serve the man with a kidnapping warrant.
The standoff and deaths came after what officials and family members said was months of precipitating problems between the man and his estranged wife.
Tuesday night, a crowd gathered in Keenesburg’s Schey Park for a candlelight vigil to mourn 14-year-old Keith Kilker. The teenager refused to leave during the standoff between police and his father, Shawn D. Kilker, 42, telling negotiators he was there voluntarily.
A SWAT team had been dispatched to the 400 block of Kiser Avenue about 8:30 p.m. Monday.
By 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, all contact with the suspect and the boy had stopped, so deputies sent in a camera at which point they discovered two bodies on the floor. The SWAT team then used an explosive charge to enter the home and end the standoff.
Investigators believe Shawn Kilker shot his son and then himself.
Members of the SWAT team did not fire their guns during the standoff, the sheriff’s office said.
“We tried to negotiate with the suspect for several hours, but unfortunately we were not successful,” Steve Reams, an office spokesman, said.
Kidnapping charges were filed against Kilker on Monday in Weld County, court records show. The office began investigating the kidnapping after it was reported July 28, Reams said.
According to Reams, the alleged kidnapping took place in late June but wasn’t reported until the end of last month. Charges — which also included allegations of assault, trespass, felony menacing and false imprisonment with use of force for over 12 hours — were filed in the after the office investigated the alleged crime.
A domestic abuse protection order was also filed in Weld County court against Kilker last week that temporarily barred him from contact with Denise Kilker, his estranged wife. A court hearing to extend that order was set for Aug. 15, records show.
Shawn Kilker has a criminal history that includes charges of assault and menacing, according to court filings and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Reams said the office believes Shawn Kilker was living at the home when the standoff happened. Neighbors said the couple lived in the house with three children, including two girls and a teenage boy.
The SWAT team was able to get a woman and two men away from the scene Monday night before making contact with Kilker, who then barricaded himself in the home with the boy, according to the office.
A cousin of the suspect’s wife, Jackie Traxler, said Tuesday morning that Shawn and Denise Kilker were going through a divorce.
“They’ve always had problems,” said Traxler, who lives down the street from the Kilkers’ home. “But I never thought he would do something like this.”
Neighbors told The Denver Post that deputies also were at the home Sunday night demanding the suspect surrender. The office said they were conducting a search warrant on the house, seizing items.
Deputies were there for about four hours Sunday before leaving, neighbors said.
The office declined to say what was taken from the home.
John and Emma Meire, who live just down the street from the house where the standoff happened, said they heard negotiators pleading over an intercom with someone inside the house to come out for hours Monday night and into early Tuesday. During that time, the Meires said they also heard a number of loud booms.
“There’s not much excitement here at this corner,” John Meier said. “I’ve lived in Keenesburg 73 years and we’ve never had excitement like this.”
People around this small town of about 1,100 roughly 45 miles northeast of Denver told a reporter that the news of the standoff and deaths was spreading fast and had a profound impact on the community.
Tuesday morning, investigators clad in white jumpsuits and wearing gas masks were gathering evidence in the one-story pink home, carrying out evidence bags and then later two bodies, which were placed together — one by one — in a white pickup truck bearing the Weld County insignia.
Donald Enroughty, who has known the Kilkers for over a decade, said Shawn Kilker told his estranged wife that he would “kill everyone that she loved” if she left him.
“Anything to hurt her, that was what it was all about,” he said, adding that the teen killed during the standoff was a “good kid.”
“He was looking forward to playing football for Weld Central (High School) this year,” Enroughty said.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jesseapaul
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