Man shoots woman in home with children one week after posting bond
BY BROOKE NEVINS brooke.nevins@gazette.com
A man with a “lengthy” domestic violence history told a woman that their “lives are gonna end tonight” after shooting her in a home with three children inside, police said in an arrest affidavit.
Around 11:15 p.m. on Sept. 11, law enforcement received a domestic violence call at the 1600 block of Peregrine Vista Heights, near Voyager and Interquest parkways in north Colorado Springs.
An operator stayed on the open line and reportedly heard a female telling 37-year-old Martet Lavell Urquhart that he should not have hit her “in front of” others, whose names were redacted from the affidavit obtained by The Gazette.
A police blotter entry reported that three children were inside the residence at the time. A shelter-in-place order was issued for the area at 11:45 p.m.
While the phone was still on the line, the female texted 911 and said Urquhart was holding her hostage and had hit her with a gun and had threatened to kill her, the affidavit said.
The operator then reportedly heard three gunshots and “people screaming.”
Urquhart was heard saying, “You did this,” the affidavit said. A child was heard asking for help and saying that Urquhart had killed the woman.
“It’s too late now,” Urquhart was heard saying.
The woman texted 911 again and said she had been shot, could not walk, was still being held at gunpoint and that Urquhart said he would kill her if police arrived.
The woman later told police that she and Urquhart had been “arguing all day about their relationship,” including about Urquhart’s alleged “infidelity,” and continued after she had put the children — aged 14, 7 and 2 — to bed, the affidavit said. During the argument, Urquhart reportedly hit the woman two times in the head with his handgun after she had bitten him.
“Our lives are gonna end tonight,” Urquhart allegedly told the woman. “I’m going to shoot you and then myself.”
Urquhart then fired his gun toward the main bedroom, then fired at the woman, hitting her in her leg, the affidavit said. He then allegedly let the youngest two children leave the home, but made the eldest child stay as he was “pacing and rambling” and blocking a window with a mattress with the lights off.
Once the CSPD Tactical Enforcement Unit and crisis negotiators responded to the scene, Urquhart exited the residence and surrendered around 1:25 a.m. to law enforcement.
The woman was taken to the hospital, where a doctor said the gunshot wounds to the woman’s thigh caused a femoral fracture with “substantial risk of death (and) serious permanent disfigurement,” documents said.
All three children were uninjured, police said.
At the time of the shooting, the victim had a restraining order against Urquhart, served on Sept. 1, that restricted him from being at the home or having any communication with the victim.
Urquhart allegedly forced the woman to email the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office and say that she lied about previous domestic violence incidents and that she would not continue to press charges against him, documents said.
He would also threaten her if she did choose to move forward with investigations, the affidavit said.
Urquhart had been arrested twice since July for various child abuse and assault charges, showing a “lengthy domestic violence history,” where the “level of violence has increased greatly,” the affidavit said. The shooting happened exactly a week after he posted a $5,000 bond and released from jail on Sept. 4, documents said.
Urquhart was charged with second degree attempted murder, felony assault and menacing and illegal use of a firearm charges, as well as false imprisonment and child abuse misdemeanors, documents show.
He is currently being held in the El Paso County Jail on a $35,000 bond, jail records show.
LOCAL & STATE
en-us
2023-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z
2023-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z
https://daily.gazette.com/article/281655374682131
The Gazette, Colorado Springs
![](https://r.prcdn.co/res/en-us/g25176/t463255073/2/images/toolbar-logo.png)