Longmont residents sheltered in place Saturday while SWAT conducted search warrant

Jul. 26—Longmont residents in the area of Cedar Court and Purdue Drive were ordered to shelter in place for 9 1/2 hours on Saturday while SWAT personnel searched the home of a man suspected of kidnapping a woman and later attempting to run her over with his vehicle.

Curtis Ross, 36, was arrested Saturday and faces charges of felony menacing, domestic violence, third-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, criminal attempt, obstruction of a telephone service and criminal mischief.

A deputy with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office at 6 a.m. Saturday responded to a report of domestic violence that occurred at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, according to an arrest affidavit.

When deputies interviewed the woman who had made the domestic violence report, they noticed her hands were shaking and that she had been crying, the affidavit said. She also had a large scrape on the back of her left elbow and scrapes on her knees, feet and fingers.

The woman told deputies she had gone to McCarthy's Pub in Longmont on Friday evening with friends and her boyfriend, whom she identified as Ross, the affidavit said. She told deputies Ross asked her to buy him alcohol but she declined. Ross left the bar and went to a nearby liquor store to purchase vodka. She said Ross returned and drank the bottle of vodka while sitting in his vehicle in the parking lot.

When the bar closed, she did not want to leave with Ross, so she went with a friend to Dickens Farm Nature Area. She and her friend smoked marijuana, but eventually she called Ross to pick her up, intending to go back to his house to sleep, according to the affidavit.

When he picked her up, about 5 a.m., she noticed he was intoxicated. The woman said Ross was known to use methamphetamine and that she had seen Ross use meth earlier on Friday.

She said they were driving to his house when he pulled into the Boulder County Fairgrounds parking lot, the affidavit said. She said that he told her they were going to watch the sunrise, but that when she told Ross she did not want to stay at the fairgrounds, he said they were going to talk about what happened the previous night.

The woman said Ross started yelling and cussing at her, so she attempted to call 911. Ross grabbed her phone and threw it out his window. She escape from the vehicle's passenger door but that Ross also exited the vehicle, a 2007 GMC Yukon, and chased her. When he caught up to her, he threw her on the ground and pinned her, the affidavit said.

She grabbed his beard, which allowed her to pull free. She began to run away again, and he ran back to his vehicle and drove aggressively after her and ran over her cell phone several times.

Ross accelerated and swerved toward her but then slammed on the brakes, stopping just short of where she was standing, the affidavit said. She then jumped over a nearby fence in order to escape being struck by the vehicle.

During the investigation, police learned that Ross had called 911 about 5:15 a.m. Saturday while sitting in the vehicle in his grandmother's driveway. The vehicle is registered to Ross' grandmother, whose address was redacted from the affidavit.

Carrie Haverfield, spokesperson for the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, said law enforcement attempted to contact Ross at his residence near the intersection of Cedar Court and Purdue Drive on Saturday morning after receiving information that he was at that location. It is unclear if he lived with his grandmother at this location.

Due to the severity of the reported crimes, SWAT personnel executed a search at Ross' home. Residents in the area were alerted and placed on a shelter-in-place order from 7:20 a.m. until about 4:50 p.m., Haverfield wrote in an email. It is unclear whether anything was recovered from the home.

Ross was found later Saturday at another residence and was arrested, Haverfield said.

During an interview with a Boulder County detective, the woman said Ross helped her move about a month ago. After the move, she was unable to find two handguns she owned. She said one gun is a pink .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun and the other is a black 9 mm semiautomatic handgun.

The woman told law enforcement she did not have any ammunition for the 9 mm gun and had an unknown number of rounds for the other gun. She could not recall how many magazines she owned for each pistol and did not have photos of the guns or their serial numbers.

Ross has two separate, active protection orders, the affidavit said. The conditions of both active orders stipulate that Ross cannot possess or consume alcohol or controlled substances and cannot possess or purchase firearms or other weapons.

Ross was previously arrested in Boulder County in 2019 and charged with third-degree assault. He was arrested again in Boulder County in November 2021 and charged with driving under the influence and failure to display proof of insurance, according to online court records.