Courtesy Families of Victims of Homicide and Missing PersonsTimothy Minnick, 48
Victim’s name: Timothy Minnick, 48
Where killed: Grizzly Rose nightclub, 5450 Valley Highway
Investigative agency: Adams County Sheriff’s Office
Date killed: Dec. 12, 2008
Cause of Death: Shot
Suspect: none identified
Timothy Minnick’s life had been spiralling downward for years when he confronted masked thieves at the popular country and western nightclub Grizzly Rose.
In the years before his shooting death in the parking lot of the nightclub that featured the likes of Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift he had suffered some difficult setbacks.
Minnick had gone through two divorces.
A bank foreclosed on the 48-year-old’s Montbello home.
He moved into a mobile home, which was destroyed by fire in February 2007. His dog was killed.
Minnick had an Internet business, Intertec Web Solutions, which tanked because much of his clients’ data burned in the fire.
He declared bankruptcy months before his death.
Then another brother died of a massive heart attack.
“He was struggling to put everything back together,” his brother Leland Minnick has said.
To add insult to injury, the former Brighton police officer was working a job he didn’t like and was looking for something else. It was tough, though. The economy was bad and good jobs were scarce. He did have a girlfriend, though.
On Friday night, Dec. 12, 2008, Minnick was working at the nightclub that hosts some of the biggest country and western entertainers in the business and is one of the places to be during the National Western Stock Show.
On a Friday night, the Grizzly Rose is typically packed for a live show. A lot of money went into the cash register.
The killers apparently went to the nightclub to rob the place.
But patrons saw the young men wearing bandanas and hooded sweatshirts out back and they immediately reported what they saw to Minnick.
Minnick and a partner confronted the three out back at 10:50 p.m.
The young killers didn’t hesitate to draw weapons.
One of the hooded men began firing several rounds at Minnick and the other man.
After he was shot, Minnick was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The other security officer was not struck.
Witnesses described three suspects as in their teens to early 20s with slender builds and between 5-feet-4 inches and 5-feet-7 inches. One wore a baseball cap.
The suspects were last seen running south from the scene, where they got into a mid-1990s white or silver sport utility vehicle, possibly a GMC Jimmy or Chevrolet Blazer.
The vehicle has a luggage rack and chrome or a light-blue kick-panel. It also has tinted back windows, but the driver’s window did not appear tinted.
A woman was seen in the suspects’ vehicle, and she is described as being heavyset with long hair past her shoulders.
No arrests have been made.
Contact information: The Adams County Sheriff’s Office can be reached at 303.654.1850. Denver Post reporter Kirk Mitchell at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com