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Victim in Christmas Day fatal beating identified, suspect still at-large

The Adams and Broomfield county coroners identified the man who was beaten to death Christmas Day after backing into someone’s vehicle.

Manuel Osvaldo Jacquez-Machado, 69, died at North Suburban Medical Center Monday, according to a Thursday news release from the coroner’s office.

Just before 10 a.m. Sunday, Thornton police officers responded to Thirsty’s Sports Pub at 1294 E. 104th Ave., where officers found Jacquez-Machado, who had been punched and kicked after backing into another man’s vehicle, according to a news release from the Thornton Police Department.

The suspect had already left the scene when police arrived and Thornton Police are still searching for him.

Police described the suspect as a white man around 5 feet, 8 inches tall with long red/blonde hair and a red/blonde beard. The suspect was last seen wearing a black and green tie-die sweatshirt, dark pants and black shoes.

The man is believed to have left the scene in a red Jeep Grand Cherokee with a black, vinyl-wrapped hood and large roof rack. Police are asking anyone with information about the vehicle, the suspect or the attack to contact detectives at 720-977-5030.

The beating was one of several violent incidents in Thornton this week.

On Tuesday, Thornton police officers responded to a bank robbery that led to a high-speed chase and ended in an officer-involved shooting.

When police responded to the Wells Fargo Bank, located at 12040 Colorado Blvd., they saw the two robbery suspects speed away.

Police chased the vehicle to the intersection of 88th Avenue and Colorado Highway 2, where the male suspect got out of the car and shots were fired. Both suspects were injured and police did not say whether the suspect shot first.

Two days earlier, also on Christmas Day, a murder-suicide left a man and his wife dead outside the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses at 951 Milky Way in Thornton.

Enoch Apodaca, 46, shot his wife, Melissa Martinez, 44, and then himself after one or both of them threw explosive devices through the Kingdom Hall window, according to police.

The two were former Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Thornton Police did not respond to the Denver Gazette’s requests for comment on the slew of violence in Thornton this week.

A murder-suicide being investigated at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses Sunday, Dec. 25, 2022. (COURTESY OF THORNTON POLICE)
A murder-suicide being investigated at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses Sunday, Dec. 25, 2022. (COURTESY OF THORNTON POLICE)


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