Andrew James Ritchie Arrested In Connection With Deadly Shooting Of Longmont Mail Carrier Jason Schaefer
LONGMONT, Colo. (CBS4) - Another person has been arrested in connection to last week's deadly shooting of a U.S. Postal Carrier in Longmont. Andrew James Ritchie, of Loveland, has been arrested for complicity to commit murder in the first degree in the shooting death of Jason Schaefer.
Devan Schreiner has already been arrested in the crime and appeared in court on Tuesday where she was formally charged with first-degree murder. Schreiner is Schaefer's ex-girlfriend and the two shared a child.
Police believe Schreiner approached Schaefer on Oct. 13 while he was at a group of neighborhood mailboxes on Heatherhill Street by Renaissance Drive, shot him several times and then ran off. Schaefer died at the scene.
Both Schreiner and Schaefer had worked for the U.S. Postal Service in Longmont but Schreiner was fired about two weeks before the deadly shooting. She had recently started working for the U.S. Postal Service in Loveland.
According to the arrest affidavit, police believe that Ritchie and Schreiner had been in a relationship. Ritchie told police that he and Schreiner were just friends but that she wanted more and he didn't want to be in a relationship with her.
Ritchie, 34, told police that he had traveled to Longmont on Oct. 13 to find Schaefer to try to warn him about Schreiner's plan to hurt him, according to the arrest affidavit. When police asked why he didn't call police if he thought that Schreiner would hurt Schaefer and he said that "he did not know if she was serious."
He also told detectives that the threats to harm Schaefer had been going on for a while and they didn't seem as serious on previous occasions "except for the three days before the shooting when Schreiner messaged him a picture of herself dressed in clothes similar to those of the shooting suspect."
Ritchie was arrested on Tuesday night and transported to the Boulder County Jail.
"Postal Inspectors from across the nation converged into Colorado to support to the Longmont Police with this important investigation. Longmont Police personnel are skilled, experienced and capable of resolving investigations of this nature, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service considers the safety of USPS employees to be the most critical element of our mission and has committed the full strength of our federal law enforcement resources to bring justice for Longmont Letter Carrier Jason Schaefer and his family," said Ruth Mendonça, Inspector in Charge of the Denver Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, in a statement. "The arrest of the second suspect in Mr. Schaefer's homicide demonstrates our collective commitment to leaving no stone unturned in this investigation and to pursue justice to the fullest extent of the law" Mendonça said.
The judge on Tuesday scheduled Schreiner's preliminary hearing for January.