On Saturday, February 16th, 2019 at approximately 8:33 AM, the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) responded to a reported armed robbery at the Valero convenience store located at 5790 North Carefree Circle. Prior to patrol officers’ arrival, the suspect fled the scene in a vehicle. When the officers arrived on scene they discovered that the clerk had been shot by the armed suspect. The clerk was transported to a local hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Additional CSPD patrol officers responded to the scene to check the area for the suspect vehicle, which was later determined to be stolen. Patrol officers located the suspect vehicle abandoned in the 5000 block of Wagon Master Drive. Patrol and K-9 officers searched the area for the suspect during which time multiple emergency notification messages were sent to the citizens living in the affected areas. At 9:55 AM, approximately 30 minutes after the first emergency notification message was sent, the suspect was located and taken into custody.

Detectives from the CSPD Robbery Unit responded to the scene and assumed responsibility for the investigation. The investigation revealed that Vincent Lupori, a 19 year old resident of El Paso County, shot the clerk while in the process of committing a robbery. Through the follow up investigation, robbery detectives discovered that Mr. Lupori was responsible for two additional convenience store robberies that occurred earlier that same morning. Mr. Lupori was charged with Attempted First Degree Murder, three counts of Aggravated Robbery, and Motor Vehicle Theft. The two other robbery locations were the Western Convenience located at 1905 West Uintah Street and the Circle K convenience store located at 5670 Palmer Park Boulevard.