3 Colorado Teenagers Arrested For Allegedly Killing Driver With Rock: Report

Ryan SaavedraApril 27, 2023

Three 18-Year-Olds Arrested for Allegedly Killing Woman with Rock While Driving

Colorado law enforcement officials have arrested three 18-year-old suspects for allegedly killing a woman with a rock while she was driving. Joseph Koenig, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, and Zachary Kwak were arrested by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office for throwing a rock from their vehicle, which struck and killed Alexa Bartell, 20, on April 19 at approximately 10:45 p.m.

The suspects are accused of going back and taking a photo of the crashed vehicle and meeting up the next day to “get their stories straight.” Bartell was killed when the rock went through her windshield while she was driving and on the phone with a friend. When the line went instantly silent, the friend tracked down the vehicle and called first responders.

Police say that multiple vehicles were struck by “large landscaping rocks in a spree that began shortly after 10:00 p.m. that night.” Bartell’s vehicle was the last vehicle hit. Each suspect was charged with First Degree Murder, Extreme Indifference. Additional charges are expected to be filed in the coming days, officials said.

What is Extreme Indifference?

“To be clear about what ‘extreme indifference’ is, it’s described as an attitude or behavior that exhibits indifference about what they are doing – in this one, it’s respect to human life,” said Jacki Kelley, a spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Law enforcement says that seven cars were struck in the area by the rocks that night, leading investigators to request cell phone data from nearby cell phone towers during the timespan the vehicles were struck. The cellphone data narrowed down the list of potential suspects to 11 people, and the list was further trimmed down when only one cell phone “traveled the path of the incidents at the specific times that each incident occurred,” 9News Denver reported. That cell phone belonged to Koening, according to police.