The man who attempted to bomb a Jehovah’s Witnesses worship hall in Thornton before killing himself and his wife on Christmas Day also bombed a union office that morning, Thornton police said Wednesday.
Enoch Apodaca, 46, carried out the attacks even though authorities were warned more than a year ago about the man’s violent threats and bomb-making history, The Denver Post found.
Apodaca caused a “large explosion” at the IBEW Local Union 68 building in the 5600 block of Logan Street in North Washington around 8:45 a.m. Sunday before moving on to attack the Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall at 951 Milky Way in Thornton minutes later, police said.
Investigators say Apodaca walked into the IBEW Local Union 68 with “what appeared to be a bucket” around 8:45 a.m. He then left the building, got back into his vehicle and “a large explosion was observed” in the building, police said.
No one was injured in the bombing, though firefighters and sheriff’s deputies responded to the explosion.
Apodaca continued on to the worship hall. Around 9 a.m., he directed his wife, Melissa Martinez, 44, to back a pickup truck up to a window at Kingdom Hall. Apodaca broke the window with a hammer and put three pipe bomb-style explosive devices inside. Martinez got out of the truck, and Apodaca shot his wife in the back of the head with a shotgun, then shot himself with the same gun, police said.
Both died. The bombs inside the meeting hall did not explode and only two people were inside at the time. One used a fire extinguisher to put out a fire that had started near the devices, police said. Investigators later found that one device “nearly detonated” before it was either extinguished or malfunctioned. That device was “attached to a bucket” that was similar to the one used in the union office bombing, police said.
When officers searched the couple’s home in the High View Mobile Home community in Westminster, they found the couple’s belongings had been set out and “clearly marked to be distributed to specific family members,” Thornton police said. Investigators also found bomb-making materials, but no additional explosive devices.
A Local 68 union representative declined comment when contacted Tuesday and Wednesday.
The married couple was former members of the Jehovah Witnesses’ congregation, Thornton police previously said.
The attacks were motivated by “personal issues” between the couple and the targeted businesses, police said. Apodaca had reached out to a member of the Kingdom Hall congregation about rejoining the community on Christmas Eve. That member directed Apodaca to the community’s elders, police said.
Prior threats, warnings to police
Westminster police were warned more than a year ago that Apodaca had threatened the Kingdom Hall congregation and was known to make bombs, according to police records obtained Wednesday by The Denver Post.
Apodoca also previously threatened to shoot his wife and a union representative after he was fired from his job as an electrician in 2021, his former employer alleged in separate court filings.
Westminster police records show a concerned caller warned police on Sept. 13, 2021, that Apodaca was threatening violence, using drugs and withdrawing from his family after he and his wife were fired from their jobs.
“He said people were going to pay and there is going to be carnage,” the police call taker noted.
The caller told police that Apodaca had been “kicked out” of the Kingdom Hall congregation three years before, that he was “very intelligent and manipulative” and that he’d threatened to make bombs.
“[Caller] is concerned that something is going to occur that could be prevented,” the call taker noted.
It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether Westminster police actually sent an officer to check on Apodaca that night. Police records show an officer was dispatched for a welfare check at 7:02 p.m. on Sept. 13, 2021, and that the officer “cleared” or ended the call at 7:26 p.m. — but it does not show that the officer actually arrived at Apodaca’s house.
Westminster police did not return requests for comment Wednesday. Records show Westminster police received seven calls for service to Apodaca’s address since September 2021, including two welfare checks and one report of harassment.
For the three calls for service reports provided to The Denver Post, Westminster police had no records that the cases progressed past the initial call.
In addition to those incidents, Apodaca also made threats after he was fired from his job as an electrician in 2021, according to an application for a civil protection order filed in December 2021 by a representative of Apodaca’s former employer, Sturgeon Electric Company Inc., where Apodaca worked on and off as a union contractor for years.
Apodaca told a union representative at “Local 68” that he would shoot the representative, Apodaca’s wife, and then “will come after the people responsible” for firing him, the protection order application alleges.
A company representative at the time wrote that Apodaca had been fired in June 2021. The temporary protection order application does not say why Apodaca was fired and a company representative declined to comment Wednesday.
It was not clear from court records whether the request for a protection order was granted. There’s also no evidence in court records that anyone pursued an extreme risk protection order against Apodaca under the state’s “red flag” law, which allows authorities to confiscate a person’s guns under some circumstances.
Family members of Apodaca and Martinez either could not be reached or declined to comment Wednesday. The dead couple was identified Wednesday by the Office of the Coroner of Adams and Broomfield counties.
Colorado Bureau of Investigation records show Apodaca was arrested in 2003 on a felony theft charge. He was accused of taking a laptop and other property from his then-wife while the two were in the process of divorcing, according to a criminal complaint. The case was ultimately dismissed by the district attorney’s office.
