Man shot at Gunnison motel

Timothy James Thomas

A shooting at the Sherpa Inn motel on Sunday left a man with a bullet in his head and resulted in the arrest of another, charged with attempted second-degree murder.

Police arrested Timothy James Thomas, a 29-year-old Colorado Springs resident, on the class 3 felony charge within minutes of the shooting. As of Tuesday, he was being held on a $60,000 bond in the Gunnison County Detention Center.

The victim of the shooting was Marco Barrientos, who, according to court records, was at the Sherpa Inn with his brother, Ruben Munguia. Munguia told police that an argument between the two men started when Barrientos took offense that Thomas was staring through their open door while Barrientos was cooking. 

According to the affidavit of arrest filed by Gunnison Police Department Detective Chris Danos, Munguia said that Thomas pulled out a gun and pointed it at Barrientos, called himself a “killer,” and then pointed it under his own chin to indicate that he was willing to kill himself. 

Thomas told Barrientos he would forget the entire situation if Barrientos would give him money, court records state. When Barrientos refused, Thomas shot Barrientos in the face, according to what Munguia told police. Munguia was standing next to his brother when the gun went off, he told police.

According to Sherpa Inn residents, Thomas had recently appeared at the motel. Miles Raventon, who lives on the ground level of the inn, two doors down from room 17, where the shooting took place, said he had seen someone with a room on the second story of the building bring Thomas to the motel. Munguia told police he had seen Thomas for the first time two hours before the shooting, also heading to a second-story room.

Raventon was watching a football game in his room when he heard the gunshot. He grabbed a phone and called police, he said, while laying in his bathtub, anticipating there would be more shots. He’s seen drug deals occur and many arguments break out at the motel.

“There’s always arguing, screaming,” Raventon said.

But Raventon said he had never seen anything like the shooting that happened Sunday.

Thomas allegedly fled south on foot, and police broadcast his description to area law enforcement officers. Less than 10 minutes after the shooting, Derek Chodorowski, a law enforcement officer with the Bureau of Land Management, had Thomas in custody at the intersection of Taylor Street and San Juan Avenue, three blocks away from the motel. Shortly thereafter, Danos brought Munguia to the area, who identified Thomas as the man who had shot his brother.

After the drive-by identification by Munguia, a Taylor Street resident brought a large wad of cash to an officer at the scene. According to Danos’ report, the resident had seen Thomas run by her home, and he tried to give her the money. Thomas had told her “‘they’ were going to kill him” and that “something bad” had happened at the motel.

Thomas did not have a gun on his person when Chodorowski took him into custody. Police on Monday issued a request for help from the public in finding the pistol. Later on Monday, law enforcement officers located the gun using information that Thomas provided about where he threw it.

Court records show that Thomas has been charged with multiple gun, car theft and harassment charges over the past seven years, mostly in the Colorado Springs area. He had been sentenced to multiple years in prison on some of the charges. On Nov. 3, four days before the shooting at the Sherpa Inn, Thomas posted a $2,000 bond in El Paso County, where he was being held on a misdemeanor charge of reckless use of a gun. He was due back in El Paso County Court in December for an aggravated car theft charge, for which he was arrested in July.

According to Gunnison Chief of Police Keith Robinson, Thomas had hitchhiked into Gunnison, most likely from Colorado Springs.

The victim, Barrientos, was transported to the Gunnison Valley Health (GVH) emergency room before being flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction on Sunday. GVH personnel found a bullet lodged in the lower portion of his sinus cavity. As of Monday, the last time Gunnison police received an update, Barrientos was alive, but his further status was unknown.

Barrientos and Munguia had been living at the Sherpa Inn for several weeks, according to Robinson, and were doing construction work in Crested Butte.

(Sam Liebl can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or editior@gunnisontimes.com)