Your Reporter Alan Gionet reports on a wide variety of issues and specializes in covering stories in Colorado's foothills. Share you story ideas with him by sending an email to yourreporter@cbs.com.
In the days after a Colorado man fired into an Evergreen health clinic before taking his own life, a picture has begun to emerge of the life of 62-year-old Lance Black.
Black was a man who lived alone and reportedly had mounting health troubles that were difficult to treat.
"I was just thrown that he would be involved in something like that," said Judianne Atencio, who lived near Black.
She would often give him rides when he hitchhiked along Brook Forest Road or Highway 73, as he did not have a vehicle at the time. She would help him get to the grocery store because it was clear he wasn't well enough to carry groceries.
"He said, 'It's not easy. I'm struggling to do it. I'm in ill health and to do it is really hard,'" she recalled.
In their trips to the store, he once told a story of how upset he was as a child growing up on a farm in the Midwest when his father took a gun and shot a dog. Odd, she thought, that Black would fire a shotgun in a clinic as people took refuge out of fear for their lives.
The Jefferson County Sheriff says Black fired 19 rounds into various pieces of equipment, computers, doors, and walls, as well as windows at the Common Spirit Primary Care facility on Ellingwood Trail in Evergreen, on Thursday.
Downstairs, below the clinic, people at the Tuscany Tavern restaurant heard the fire alarm go off and what sounded like explosions. Business manager Tammy Drozda and others headed outside to find greater danger.
"The window right behind me blew out, and I just thought, ' Wow, that's some kind of fire up there. Just heard explosion after explosion," said Drozda.
It was not clear to them that there was a shooter upstairs until sheriff's deputies began arriving and went in with weapons drawn. At that point, they were behind cars in the parking lot. Some people were trapped in their cars outside.
They called to each other,"'Stay down, stay down!' We were huddled down,a group of us from the Tuscany Tavern together,"Drozda recalled.
Black took his own life as deputies tried to root him out.
"They were here,I would say,in less than five minutes,and I think it would have been a lot different if they weren't here so quickly,"said Drozda.
Black had contact with many people in town while hitchhiking back and forth. He spent a great deal of time at the Evergreen Library because he had no internet at home. A person who knew him said he had become angry about his health situation and other issues, such as politics, which also incited his ire.
Black's record in Colorado included a misdemeanor harassment charge and protection order violation in 2007, as well as a DUI charge in 2004 and an assault charge in 2000, which was pleaded down to attempted assault. Jail time was suspended. He was placed on probation.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office says there's nothing uncovered yet, like a felony conviction, that would have prevented him from owning a firearm.
Atencio said about a year ago that Black got a vehicle again and was not hitchhiking. She saw him about three months ago outside a Safeway where he had given two neighbors a ride to the store, saying he was paying back what he'd gotten from her.
"I didn't almost recognize him. He looked horrible. He looked so ill, and his face had dropped as though he had had a stroke," she recalled.
Atencio asked if he'd had a stroke.
"He said,'No,they don't think I had a stroke,the doctors don't think so.They say no,and they don't know what's wrong with me,'"she said.
That was the last time she saw him. Now she is upset at what Black did to others in a community she cares about. She says,"He upset the peace of mind that's already been disturbed" in Evergreen from the high school shooting in September.
"For him to choose this,it must have just driven him to madness at the end,"Atencio said."And the fact that he hurt our community as a whole,that clinic in particular,the patients at that clinic;that makes me very sad that he did that."
At Tuscany Tavern, they decided, like in the days after the school shooting, to reopen right away.
"You know it wasn’t really difficult because you open for the right reasons," said owner Rick Egloff. "The right reason was to allow people to come in, get together, and share the experience and hug."
Some of their workers are Evergreen High students.
"I checked in with them, and they showed up Friday night. And they worked their shifts, and they were positive and supportive and wonderful as ever, and we do it for them," said Drozda.
A spokesperson for Common Spirit released an additional statement Monday, which said in part:
"We are supporting our team members as they process what took place. We will keep our patients and community informed as we thoughtfully determine next steps, including a timeline for reopening the clinic."