RIFLE, Colorado – When Steven Michael Stagner shot seven people – killing four and wounding three others – on the night of July 3, 2001, it was the worst crime the city of Rifle has seen in recent memory, according to Police Chief Daryl Meisner.

Meisner has been with the city police department for 36 years, the last 20 as police chief.

“There has never been anything like it,” Meisner recalled.

Starting at the old City Market parking lot on Railroad Avenue shortly before midnight on July 3, Stagner, 43 at the time, shot one man and then proceeded to the courtyard of what was then the Bookcliff RV Park across the street and shot the other six. All the victims were Mexican nationals.

“We chased him down and captured him a few minutes later on 12th Street,” Meisner said.

But it was too late for Juan Hernandez-Carrillo, brothers Melquiades and Juan Carlos Medrano-Velasquez and Angelica Toscano-Salgado.

The Bookcliff RV Park was razed several years later and the property sold, but there was fear among the Latino population in Rifle that something like that could happen to them, according to Irene Goergen, director of religious education for St. Mary’s Church, where all the victims were members.

“Fear – a lot of fear,” Goergen said. “There’s wasn’t so much resentment at first, but then later there was anger.”

Shortly after the tragedy, a community march was held followed by a rally in Metro Park.

“The community really came together and expressed their grief and outrage at such a heinous act,” said Mayor Keith Lambert.

In October of 2002, Stagner was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the 19 felony charges against him and sentenced to one day to life at the state mental hospital in Pueblo.

“But that’s not punishment to us,” Goergen said. “He will probably be released in one or two years.”

Now, nine years later, the community is again invited to come together as a memorial bench is placed at St. Mary’s Church and a dedication ceremony is planned to honor the victims at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 3.

With $250 in seed money, community members, the Rifle Police Department and local businesses have contributed to the $3,300 needed for the granite memorial bench, which bears the names of the victims and will be placed at St. Mary’s Catholic Church at Seventh Street and Birch Avenue.

Following the shootings, $64,000 was raised to help the families bury their loved ones and pay for hospital bills.

Sally Brands, who is part of the Community Immigration Initiative and has spearheaded the fundraising effort for the memorial bench in the last few months, said there is no special reason for having a memorial nine years after the tragedy, except that the money has been raised and enough time has passed.

“It’s far enough away that it’s appropriate to put up a memorial,” Brands said “We needed to get a little distance from it. We can still remember, but it’s far enough away in the past that it doesn’t raise a lot of emotions.”

The bench, created by Carlson Memorial in Grand Junction, doubles as both a place to sit and a headstone, although the victims are not there. The Toscano family still lives in the area and is expected to attend the memorial and one of the injured, Rudolso Beltran, lives in Parachute. The others have since moved back to Mexico.

“This just seems like the appropriate thing to do and the whole community is invited,” Brands said.