 We ready? Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Lieutenant Robert Rock with Denver Police Department Traffic Investigations Unit. Last name is spelled R O C K. And with me is Detective Stephanie Linkus. Also with traffic investigations. Her last name is spelled L I N K U S. On Sunday, July 24th of this year, the Denver Police Department received several 911 calls about a large group of motorcycle riders that were blocking traffic on I 25, performing stunts, driving recklessly, racing and generally disrupting traffic in the area. These riders associated their activity with a group calling itself killed the streets. This group claimed to be bringing attention to fatal motorcycle crashes. But their message was lost by the general actions of the group and specifically by certain riders in the group who were engaged in reckless behavior in the roadways in Denver. They created a substantial risk not only to themselves, but to other motorists here in the city. Detectives from several units of the Denver Police Department began investigation into this incident. And today we are here to announce the first of several arrests of three individuals involved. Motorcycles used are also being located and impounded as evidence. These arrests were pursuant to warrants obtained in Denver, and the individuals are being transferred to the Denver City Jail. Two arrests were made in Colorado Springs and a third was made in Pueblo. Two motorcycles are currently being transported to the Denver vehicle impound facility from Colorado Springs. And we are attempting to locate the third one. The case against these are the cases against these three individuals will be filed with the Denver District Attorney's office. And each individual was ultimately arrested pursuant to the warrant for exhibition of speed and reckless driving, both of which are misdemeanors. The investigation into other individuals involved in this incident is ongoing. And we will notify the media of any future arrests. Information about these individuals, the three arrests today will be distributed to you as well as a mug photos. So at this time, I will open it up to any questions that you might have. It was a lengthy process involving doing investigation on social media through video through news video, and ultimately, you know, searching records for license plate numbers, those kind of things, general traffic investigation, efforts, and and intelligence gathering. These suspects had posted what they did on I 25 on their own social media accounts. I can't get into the specifics, but yes, there were social media accounts that did depict what what was going on. And we saw individuals that we're able to identify, including their vehicles, their motorcycles. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, social media has become a great benefit to law enforcement all over the nation for a wide variety of things. How would you describe their posts about this? Were they proud of what they had done? Were they bragging about Detective? Yes, yes, they had actually tried to sorry, they actually did a production of the video. They were very proud of their work and they were very happy about shutting down I 25 and conducting different stunts that were reckless. They have any realization that what they were doing could put more motorcycles at risk? It didn't appear that way at all. What did this feel like for you in this investigation? Um, it was definitely frustrating and it's a scary thought to think that people can be out on that roadway and obviously be injured and we would have to go out there on something a lot more severe than people making stunts. We could went out on a fatality or somebody injured who wasn't involved in the kill the streets association at all across the line from being a protest, something. Yeah, that's an important point. The city and county of Denver encourages peaceful protesting. It encourages people to speak up on issues and bring attention to issues in a lawful way. It crosses the line when criminal activity becomes part of what's going on or when the selected venue, which in this case was a restricted access highway is being utilized for this kind of thing. Um, and the general risk that the public was placed in. Imagine going down I 25 at 55 miles an hour and suddenly you come around a corner and all the traffic is at a dead stop or it's being stopped. Um, our understanding is and from, uh, from some of the information we received that that, uh, motorcyclists were kind of surrounding cars and directing them off the roadway and I mean that that activity is just, uh, absolutely dangerous and unacceptable as a form of protest. How many more arrests do you expect to make? Um, yeah, at this point, uh, we are still obtaining information and that's one thing that we would like to ask the public's help in is providing us with any additional tips. We've received some tips, uh, that we're following up on and we're also, um, pursuing other leads, but, uh, there were in excess of a hundred people involved in this, not only riders, but also support vehicles, vehicles that were driving around videotaping this high quality videotaping other vehicles that were there to, um, assist the motorcycle, uh, the motorcycle riders if they got into trouble in, in some, uh, fashion or whatever. So it was more than just riders involved in this particular incident. So we would like the public's help in identifying any of those, um, individuals, but I mean due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, I can't really tell you how many more people we anticipate bringing in at this point in time. The other people who were arrested, were they, uh, photographing the incident or were they actually directing some of the stunts? Um, all I can really tell you is that they were, they were directly involved in the incident itself doing, uh, doing the riding and the stunts and things like that. Do you have any indication they were kind of leaders in this or had organized it? Are you going after those people as well? Um, we are attempting to, uh, find leaders, but this is a loosely associated group that just kind of, uh, a lot like flash mobs almost, where, you know, they put things out on social media a little bit ahead of time and they want people to, to come join them and it's not like you have to be a card carrying member of, of this group in order to participate. You just show up and, and away you go. Is that how they got this together? Was through like this, uh, Facebook post to have everyone show up at a certain time? Yeah, uh, Facebook was, uh, primarily the, uh, the venue that was used to organize this group and I'm sure that there were groups of individuals that also knew each other that all collected and came, came together as part of this. So potentially if you had identifying information on all 100 plus riders or whoever was involved, all of them could potentially be facing charges? Yeah, depending on, on what, uh, actions that we can, uh, identify through eyewitness testimony or through video evidence. Yeah, I mean people who are riding peacefully and are not part of, you know, what's going on, um, may potentially not face, uh, criminal, um, charges. However, the fact that you're there supporting a group, that is a potential charge too. It's aiding and abetting, uh, and as far as traffic matters are concerned, we, uh, the law is, uh, parties to a crime. Can you say what level misdemeanors are? These are in class one. Can we talk about penalties? Yeah, they're gonna be class one traffic misdemeanors and the general penalties, Doug, do you have that information off the top of your head? Yeah, I think it's like six months in jail and, um, like a $999 fine. It's pretty close to that. But if you need the specifics, we'll get those put out to you about what each one carries with it. They are designated criminal violations though as far as the traffic code is concerned. My understanding is it lasted, uh, several hours. It wasn't just contained I-25. It occurred on I-70. It was both north and southbound I-25. Riders came into the downtown area. So, you know, our best estimate, you know, when it started and when it ended, is really kind of hard to, uh, to put our finger on. We got the calls, officers were dispatched, by the time officers got to certain locations where calls came in, motorcyclists were gone, and then all of a sudden there's a call in another location. So, it was kind of like, you know, chasing the tail of a tiger. The incident you have on camera earlier that you saw a lot of throughout the state that day? Yes, and, uh, some of the news organizations actually caught some of it on video as well. Next weekend, checking social media to see if they had seen it. Yeah, I mean, certainly now that this group has come to our attention, we'll be watching them more closely, you know, just to be able to anticipate what's going on. But, uh, yeah, these kind of things occur and we're constantly responding to protests downtown, different groups, different days. I mean, they don't really have to file a flight plan with us, if you will, ahead of time. And so, we're just, um, as we find things out, then we try to address them. And we did get a tip a few weeks ago about a potential, another motorcycle incident, and it turned out to be nothing. But we appreciate the public helping us out with that kind of information. If they hear somebody say, hey, you know, we're going to organize this ride, or we're going to organize this street racing event, if somebody drops us a line, we'll, we take that serious. How would you describe the level of risk these riders put all the other drivers on at 25? Well, I, I think the, the risk is extreme. When you are doing stuff like this on a highway, uh, there's no other place where people are driving faster. And the, the faster people are driving, the less time they have to react, the less time they have to stop, and the higher the potential injury is in those types of collisions. When you, happens with those, what could be the ultimate? Well, at this point, uh, they're going to be impounded as evidence, and they'll be held through the, uh, trial portion of, of these, uh, three cases, and then potentially they could be seized as part of our public nuisance abatement laws. And that, that has a, a wide range of potentials. One potential is, is that it sits in our pound for a year, and then the person is offered the opportunity to, uh, pay the impound fees and receive their vehicle back. Uh, the ultimate potential is, it's, uh, it's seized and it's sent to the crusher. One more question? Is there, is there a penalty of, as far as like, losing their motorcycle endorsement? Generally, yeah, that, that doesn't really apply unless they have, uh, unless these individuals have other traffic violations within a specified time period, um, because each of these charges will be 12 points against their license. So that can add up pretty quickly, and if they reach their maximum points, then their license could be suspended. But that would be their, their driving license and their, that includes their motorcycle endorsement. But generally, once you receive a motorcycle endorsement, there's really no aspect of the law that allows it to be removed. Thank you.