13-Year-Old Killed in Front of Mom in Road Rage Shooting After Man Allegedly Follows Them to Dentist
On June 14 Meghan Bigelow was driving her three boys to a dentist appointment in a Denver suburb when she was followed into the parking lot by another vehicle.
In what police say was a road rage incident, the driver of the second car, 23-year-old Jeremy Webster, had allegedly trailed Bigelow for about a mile before pulling up in the parking lot behind her, getting out of his vehicle and arguing with her as she exited her car with her kids.
Webster then allegedly brandished a Glock 19 handgun and fired several shots point-blank at Bigelow, 41, who fell, before he aimed several more shots at two of her sons, 13-year-old Vaughn and 8-year-old Asa, according to a police affidavit detailing the shooting obtained by The Denver Post and Denver news station KDVR.
The eldest boy died from his injuries.
Before leaving the scene, Webster made eye contact with another driver, a man in a pickup truck with his daughter, and shot at the truck as well, police allege. The pickup driver, John Gale, who was hit in his arms, threw his truck into reverse and fled with his unharmed child.
Webster then left in his Toyota Corolla.
Bigelow’s third son, 12-year-old Cooper, who ran and was not hurt, told police that his mom had snapped a photograph of Webster’s license plate before they got out of their car.
Authorities who found that image on Bigelow’s phone were able to track Webster’s vehicle and arrest him about three hours later on Interstate 25 heading toward his home in Colorado Springs, according to the affidavit.
On Monday Webster was denied bail by Adams County Judge Donald Quick during his first court appearance, news station KMGH reports. He is under investigation for first-degree murder after deliberation with intent, first-degree murder with extreme indifference, first-degree assault and criminal attempt to commit a Class 1 felony. He is due back in court Thursday to be formally charged.
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PEOPLE could not immediately reach his public defender, Kimberly Gonzalez.
After his arrest, Webster allegedly told police that earlier that day he started taking a new prescription medication for mental health issues, and that he was traveling with the handgun in the trunk of his car, according to the affidavit.
“Jeremy eventually admitted that he was the one who shot Meghan, both of her children and John Gale,” the affidavit alleges.
The current conditions of Bigelow and her 8-year-old son, both of whom were initially said by police to have been in critical condition, were not available.
They have “a long road of recovery ahead of them,” according to the family’s GoFundMe page, which had raised $145,000 by Thursday.
