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Vail shooting unites families

Family of man who helped survivor bonds with victim’s family

Lauren Glendenning/Vail Daily

Documents sealed in Vail shooting case

Prosecutors will file charges Monday against Richard “Rossi” Moreau in the killing of a man at Vail’s Sandbar, District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said Thursday.

Police say Moreau, 63, of Vail, killed Gary Bruce Kitching, a Carbondale physician, and injured three others in the Nov. 7 shooting.

Monday is the deadline that Judge Katharine T. Sullivan gave prosecutors for filing charges.

Prosecutors said previously that they are pursuing first-degree murder charges, but Hurlbert said Thursday that they have not finalized which charges they will file.

Multiple charges are likely, Hurlbert said.

On Thursday, Sullivan granted a motion from Hurlbert asking that search warrant affidavits be sealed.

“Right now, we’re trying to protect the integrity of the investigation,” Hurlbert said.

A register of court actions shows the affidavit in support of a request for a search warrant filed Tuesday involves the cell phone of Darlene Hoffman.

Hoffman has described herself as a friend and former psychologist of Moreau. A 2000 police report described her as Moreau’s girlfriend.

Public defender Reed Owens, who is representing Moreau, has filed for a gag order in the case. Sullivan has yet to rule on the motion.

Owens could not be reached by phone Thursday afternoon.

Moreau is scheduled for arraignment Dec. 1 at the courthouse in Eagle. He remains in the Eagle County Jail.

— Vail Daily

Documents sealed in Vail shooting case

Prosecutors will file charges Monday against Richard “Rossi” Moreau in the killing of a man at Vail’s Sandbar, District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said Thursday.

Police say Moreau, 63, of Vail, killed Gary Bruce Kitching, a Carbondale physician, and injured three others in the Nov. 7 shooting.

Monday is the deadline that Judge Katharine T. Sullivan gave prosecutors for filing charges.



Prosecutors said previously that they are pursuing first-degree murder charges, but Hurlbert said Thursday that they have not finalized which charges they will file.

Multiple charges are likely, Hurlbert said.



On Thursday, Sullivan granted a motion from Hurlbert asking that search warrant affidavits be sealed.

“Right now, we’re trying to protect the integrity of the investigation,” Hurlbert said.

A register of court actions shows the affidavit in support of a request for a search warrant filed Tuesday involves the cell phone of Darlene Hoffman.

Hoffman has described herself as a friend and former psychologist of Moreau. A 2000 police report described her as Moreau’s girlfriend.

Public defender Reed Owens, who is representing Moreau, has filed for a gag order in the case. Sullivan has yet to rule on the motion.

Owens could not be reached by phone Thursday afternoon.

Moreau is scheduled for arraignment Dec. 1 at the courthouse in Eagle. He remains in the Eagle County Jail.

— Vail Daily

— Jim Lindley, one of the survivors of the Nov. 7 shooting at the Sandbar in West Vail, is still in the intensive care unit at the Denver Health hospital but is showing signs of progress this week, family members said.

Jim Lindley, 63, regained consciousness early Monday morning. He’s now responding to commands and appears to know who he is, family members said.

Lindley’s journey to Denver wasn’t easy, and the witnesses at the scene that night who helped him likely saved his life. Lindley’s daughter said if it wasn’t for the two men who helped her father get out of the Sandbar that night, she’s sure he wouldn’t be alive.

Jim Lindley was shot four times — twice in the abdomen, once in the right arm and one in the left elbow. Most of his family lives in California and has been traveling to Denver to be by his side. The mother of his daughter is visiting him this week and his brother, Richard Lindley, is scheduled to arrive today. His daughter is heading back to Denver again next week.

“We’re trying to have family there all the time,” she said.

Through the ordeal, another family also has been there for Jim Lindley since the beginning. Buck and Cindy Hamborsky and their children, Kylie Sage, 20, and Ian Sage, 22, were at the Sandbar the night of the shooting. Buck Hamborsky helped get Jim Lindley outside and to an ambulance with one other man, Cindy Hamborsky said.

The family was visiting Colorado from Pittsburgh — they were heading to the Monday Night Football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos and wanted to spend some time in Vail in the days before the game. They were staying at the Vail Marriott and went to the Sandbar to get some dinner that night, Cindy Hamborsky said.

The family was just feet away when the shooter started firing. Suspect Richard “Rossi” Moreau, a longtime Vail resident, is being held at the Eagle County jail and is expected to be formally charged with first degree murder, perhaps as early as next week.

Buck and Cindy Hamborsky and their daughter, Kylie Sage, made it outside while the shootings were happening. Once out back, they didn’t see their son make it out and thought he was still inside, Cindy Hamborsky said.

“We continued to hear gun shots, and we thought our son was dead,” Cindy Hamborsky said.

Buck Hamborsky went back inside to find his son and didn’t see him. When he was outside a second time, Ian Sage yelled to his father from a car he was hiding under in the parking lot — he was OK.

In the process, Buck Hamborsky did find Jim Lindley and helped get him outside, Cindy Hamborsky said.

Another man helped bring Jim Lindley down a set of stairs toward the ambulance because paramedics weren’t allowed onto the scene because a suspect hadn’t been apprehended.

The family have remained in touch with the Lindley family, and Cindy Hamborsky said she knows the families will be friends for many years.

“For some reason, (Jim Lindley) really touched us,” Cindy Hamborsky said.

The feelings are mutual. Lindley’s daughter says she is grateful that there are people like Buck Hamborsky who would risk their lives to save a stranger.

There also were witnesses who brought sheets over from the Holiday Inn in West Vail to hold Jim Lindley’s chest to try to stop the bleeding.


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