3 Charged With Killing Woman by Throwing Rock at Windshield

UPDATE Apr 26, 2023 1:40 PM CDT

Three teenage men have been arrested in the death of Alexa Bartell, a 20-year-old woman from Arvada, Colorado, who was killed on her way home last week by a landscaping rock thrown through her windshield. As CBS News reports, Joseph Koenig, Nicholas "Mitch" Karol-Chik, and Zachary Kwak, all 18, were taken into custody overnight Tuesday. They are all from Arvada, and all face charges of first-degree murder and extreme indifference. It's unclear at this point who was driving the 2016 black Chevy Silverado officials say was involved in the attack, but the teens are accused of going on a spree of rock throwing late at night that hit multiple vehicles. Two other people were injured; Bartell's was the final vehicle hit.

Apr 21, 2023 11:45 AM CDT

When Alexa Bartell's voice cut out on the other end of the line on Wednesday, the friend she'd been on the phone with grew worried and tracked her device. The 20-year-old from Arvada, Colorado, had been driving, but the app showed the phone as stationary. The friend went to that location and found Bartell's car had left the road and stopped in a field; Bartell was dead inside, and authorities say she was killed after someone apparently threw a rock through her windshield. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office says her car wasn't the only one targeted: Between 10pm and 12:30am, rocks were thrown—either from another vehicle or the side of the road—at five cars, and went through the windshields of all but one of them.

Bartell, who 9News reports was headed home from work, was struck by the rock and killed around 10:45pm. Two of the other drivers whose cars were struck suffered minor injuries. "These are not games," JCSO Public Information Officer Jacki Kelley told FOX21. "We don't know who these suspects are, why they're trying to do this, but they killed somebody last night and we want to know who they are." The Denver Post quoted Kelley as saying the rocks measured 4 to 6 inches wide and weighed 3 to 5 pounds. Anyone with info is asked to call the JCSO tip line at 303-271-5612. (More car accident stories.)