Patrick Gallagher Charged With Attempted Murder In Shooting Of Teenager Allegedly Breaking Into His Truck
LONGMONT, Colo. (CBS4) - A 39-year-old Longmont man was arrested Tuesday night after police officers discovered a 13-year-old boy had suffered wounds from the man's alleged shotgun blast.
Patrick Gallagher was taken into custody on seven charges including 2nd Degree Attempted Murder, Felony Menacing, Child Abuse, Reckless Endangerment, a weapon discharge violation, and two counts of assault involving a weapon.
Gallagher reported to Longmont Police Department at 11:20 p.m. that a group of individuals was trying to break in to his black truck in the 400 block of Kensington Street. The group, he described, was driving in a white Cadillac.
Officers encountered the Cadillac and pulled it over in a "high-risk stop," according to the arrest affidavit. Four people were removed from the vehicle - two adults and two minors, all males. An officer noticed small facial wounds and fresh blood on the last person who exited the Cadillac. That person, the 13-year-old, told the officer he had been shot from what the teenager thought to be a distance of 15 feet.
The 13-year-old told the officer he was "tagging" earlier that evening, a term that describes spray-paint vandalism. He got together later with friends. The group began looking for unlocked vehicles, he told the officer, and were working the door handles on a black truck when a man yelled, "Get away from my truck," and fired a gun twice, the teen reported.
The 13-year-old ran down an alley and jumped over a fence. He was taken to a hospital where other "birdshot" ammunition wounds were found on his chest and arms.
Additional Longmont officers visited Gallagher's residence and found a shotgun in a shop behind the house. Gallagher told officers he was working in the sop when he noticed the activity around his truck.
Later, after the Cadillac was pulled over and the teenager's story unfolded, officers returned to the Gallagher property, found evidence of the shooting, and arrested him.
Robin Ericson, Communications and Marketing Manager for Longmont Public Safety, said one of the adult men from the Cadillac was arrested on an unrelated warrant, but none of the four have been arrested for the events of Tuesday night.
However, she added that at least one of the four from the Cadillac is believed to be connected to vandalism that occurred at Community Christ Church. That church is located on the corner of Martin Street and Longs Peak Avenue, about three blocks from the Gallagher home. The damage to the church may have been committed earlier Tuesday evening, Ericson said, but the exact time of the incident is so far undetermined.
The church was built in 1924.
The four individuals may also be connected to multiple reports of vehicle break-ins in the neighborhood earlier Tuesday night, Ericson said.
"We don't know the extent of it because we're still investigating," she said Friday. "We are still taking in reports. Likely one or more of the individuals are involved in the tagging."
Longmont experienced a rise in vehicle break-ins in 2021. Of the 547 reported incidents, 75 percent of them occurred to vehicles which were left unlocked.
Gallagher has bonded out of jail. Contacted by CBS4 at noon Friday, Gallagher declined to be interviewed without a lawyer present. He is scheduled to appear in a Boulder courtroom Tuesday for formal filing of charges.