A man shot and killed by Bureau of Land Management park rangers Sunday near Grand Junction was the same man acquitted of murder charges from a 1993 shooting in a Colorado Springs bar.
The Mesa County Coroner identified the man killed by rangers as 67-year-old Eugene Baylis.
Mesa County Sheriff’s deputies said Baylis was inside a van when they said he fired on two rangers, who fired back and killed him. One ranger was hit by the gunfire, but is expected to survive.
That shooting is still under investigation.
On April 17, 1993, Baylis shot and killed two people and wounded five more at the Jim and I’s Star Bar. Baylis was armed with a semi-automatic rifle and as four grenades when he walked into the bar and opened fire after he was thrown out earlier that night.
Baylis was apparently looking for someone who insulted him earlier that night.
Prosecutors sought the death penalty in the case, but ultimately a jury ruled in his favor. They ruled the shooting was in self defense, clearing him of 18 charges, including first degree murder.
