1993 Aurora, Colorado shooting

Shooting

Nathan Dunlap showed up at a friend's place around 11 in the morning carrying a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol. He told those friends he planned to go to the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant and kill people. That evening, he walked into the restaurant at 9:30, ordered a ham and cheese sandwich, and played an arcade game. Around 9:50, he slipped into a restroom and stayed there until the restaurant closed at 10:05. Then he came out and opened fire on five employees with the same pistol.

His first target was Sylvia Crowell, 19, who was wiping down the salad bar. He shot her from close range near her right ear. Ben Grant, 17, was vacuuming when Dunlap shot him fatally near the left eye. He then forced Colleen O'Connor, 17, onto her knees as she did closing work in the dining room; she begged for her life, but he shot her once through the top of her head.

Bobby Stephens, 20, had stepped outside for a smoke break. When he heard noise from inside, he thought it was kids popping balloons. He returned, walked into the kitchen, and started loading utensils into the dishwasher. Dunlap burst through the kitchen doors, aimed the handgun at him, and fired, hitting Stephens in the jaw.

Stephens fell, crawled toward the exit after Dunlap moved away, and escaped through a back door. He made his way to the Mill Pond apartment complex nearby and banged on a door to get help. He was taken to Denver General Hospital, where he was listed in fair condition.

Dunlap then forced the store manager, Marge Kohlberg, 50, to unlock the safe. After she opened it, he shot her in the ear. When he noticed she was still moving, he fired a second fatal shot through her other ear. He grabbed about $1,500 in cash and game tokens from the safe and fled. Police found six spent shell casings inside the restaurant. Crowell was taken to Denver General Hospital, where she was declared brain dead; she died the next day at Aurora Regional Medical Center. Dunlap was arrested at his mother's apartment twelve hours later.

Perpetrator

Nathan Jerard Dunlap was born on April 8, 1974, in Chicago, Illinois. He was raised by his adoptive father and biological mother, who married when Dunlap was a few months old; he never met his biological father. Shortly after his birth, his biological mother was hospitalized in Waukegan, Illinois, and Dunlap was sent to a foster home in a Chicago-area suburb. At age two in 1976, he briefly lived in Memphis, Tennessee, before moving to Michigan later that year.

At age 10 in 1984, he moved to Colorado. Both parents had a history of abusing their children. His adoptive father, Jerry, a former professional football player weighing over 300 pounds, was most violent, throwing Dunlap against walls, hurling him down hallways, hitting him with objects, and punching him. Dunlap's mother struggled with mental health issues and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in 1987.

Dunlap attempted suicide at least twice during junior high school. At age 14, his adoptive father asked a psychologist at Overland High School to evaluate him; testing revealed signs of hypomania, but no further treatment or formal diagnosis was applied. At age 15 in 1989, he committed several armed robberies using a golf club and then firearms. He was incarcerated at a juvenile detention center and, after an erratic episode, sent to a psychiatric hospital.

Upon release, he began selling drugs. In 1993, he was arrested five times on misdemeanor offenses. Dunlap began working at the restaurant as a cook in May 1993 and was fired in July after a disagreement with his supervisor over schedule hours. Acquaintances said he was frustrated over the firing and told a former coworker he planned to get even.

In September 1993, he began exhibiting signs of hypomania, stopped eating and sleeping, and became progressively more wild-eyed and unkempt.

Legal proceedings

Dunlap was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, robbery, and burglary in 1996. On May 17 of that year, he was sentenced to death and an additional 108 years. During sentencing, he swore repeatedly in an outburst lasting three minutes. In 2008, Dunlap filed a habeas corpus petition with the federal district court, arguing his trial attorney was ineffective for not presenting a defense on his mental health issues and child abuse.

In August 2010, the federal appeal was rejected; Senior U.S. District Judge John L. Kane wrote that Dunlap was fairly tried, competently represented, and justifiably sentenced to death. On April 16, 2012, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Dunlap's appeal of his death sentence. His lawyers argued that trial lawyers were negligent during sentencing by not providing evidence of Dunlap's mental illness, which could have spared him the death penalty.

On May 1, 2013, Judge William Sylvester announced an execution date for mid-August 2013. On May 22, 2013, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed a temporary reprieve, postponing the execution. Hickenlooper cited that full clemency would require Dunlap to remain segregated from the rest of the prison population. Groups including the NAACP contacted Hickenlooper requesting sparing Dunlap's life, arguing the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on African Americans and Hispanics.

The reprieve meant that unless a governor issued a new executive order, the status remained on hold. Hickenlooper was constitutionally limited from running for a third term. On November 6, 2018, Jared Polis was elected governor; during the campaign, Polis said he intended to sign a bill repealing the death penalty in Colorado and that he did not think it appropriate to comment on a specific case before reviewing it. Dunlap's death sentence was commuted to life in prison without parole in 2020 after Colorado abolished the death penalty.