Search Continues For Shooting Suspects

Reports from Colorado Springs residents of seeing people matching the descriptions of two shootings suspects have kept police busy since the shootings happened Wednesday night.

Michael Arangio, 24, and Ernest Schmidt, aka Edward Coffey, 47, continue to elude authorities. Arangio is suspected of killing three teens — brothers Wayne and Aaron Fix, 19 and 16, and friend Austin Howse, 16 — on Mira Loma Circle.

Schmidt is accused of killing an unidentified man and seriously injuring another man, Don LaRoe, during an alleged robbery at the Auto Zone store near Powers and Palmer Park boulevards.

Bob Atkins, the grandfather of the Fix brothers, said he believes neither the boys nor family and friends knew Arangio, even though the suspect lived a few blocks from the crime scene.

“(We) have discussed it and racked our brains,” said Atkins while standing near a memorial for the victims. “We just cannot see any connection between how these three kids could possibly know this man, because the name has never been mentioned. We weren’t familiar with the name. The kids were the type that if they felt threatened by an individual, they would have told us because we were very close.”

Atkins said he’s thankful to whomever came forward with information to identify Arangio as a suspect. He also said police didn’t confirm a news report that the teen victims were shot with a rifle.

People occasionally walked and drove past the memorial on Friday. Carolyn Morriss, a mother of three children, lives in the neighborhood and said she’s been unable to sleep since the tragedy.

“The entire block is just really afraid to let their kids run around like we have been,” she said. “Things have changed in the neighborhood. It makes you wonder.”