Lightning strike kills Colorado rancher and 34 head of cattle

JESSE BEDAYN

May 26, 2024 at 9:53 p.m.·1 min read

DENVER (AP) — A lightning strike killed a Colorado rancher and 34 head of cattle over the weekend, officials said Sunday.

Mike Morgan, 51, was feeding his cattle from a trailer when he was struck and died on the scene despite life-saving efforts, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office said.

The lightning bolt struck on wide open pasture outside the town of Rand, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northwest of Denver, said George Crocket, the county coroner.

The strike also bowled over around 100 head of cattle that had bunched around the trailer loaded with hay, said Crocket. “All but the 34 got up,” he said.

Morgan’s father-in-law and wife were nearby but survived the blast, said Crocket.

The incident stunned the small, tightknit community where most everybody knows everybody, Crockett said.

___

Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

CNN
The British Army trains in Kenya. Many women say soldiers raped them and abandoned children they fathered
Seventeen-year-old Marian Pannalossy cuts a striking figure wherever she goes in Archer’s Post, a small town 200 miles north of Nairobi. She lives alone and is light-skinned in a place where mixed-race people are a rarity and therefore ostracized.
KMGH - Denver Scripps
'They didn't have to hurt the kids': Armed robbers pose as delivery drivers, invade Aurora home
Police in Aurora are searching for the suspects who posed as delivery drivers and robbed a family at gunpoint in their home.
Miami Herald
Miami-Dade officers face manslaughter charges for the deaths of UPS driver, bystander
The four Miami-Dade police officers turned themselves in at the Broward Main Jail on Friday and Saturday. They’ve since been released.
HuffPost
GOP Candidate Endorsed By ‘Back From The Dead’ MLK In Unhinged AI Video
Donald Trump loyalist Anthony Hudson initially slammed the clip shared on his social media as “STUPID and DISRESPECTFUL” but soon performed a bonkers 180.
BBC
Driver of police car who hit cow removed from duty
A farmer whose runaway cow was rammed by police says the footage of the incident is a sorry sight.
CBC
LCBO workers vote 97% in favour of strike, union says
More than 8,000 members of a union representing LCBO workers have voted in favour of going on strike.The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) says 97 per cent of members who took part in the vote, were in favour of a strike. Some 8,060 LCBO workers participated — roughly 86 per cent — making it their largest strike vote ever. "Your bargaining team is back at the table this week. Armed with this powerful strike vote, we will reinforce our key demands in this round," an announcement on t
People
Angie Harmon's Daughter Arrested in North Carolina Over Alleged Nightclub Break-In
Avery Sehorn, 18, whom Harmon shares with ex-husband Jason Sehorn, graduated from high school three days before the alleged incident
Tri-City Herald
Pasco man spent years stalking 60 women, say police. Judge didn’t believe he’d stop
“You like playing God and you like playing puppeteer, and I think you like having that control.”
The Canadian Press
Maine police kill armed man after a night of gunfire and burned homes
AUBURN, Maine (AP) — A Maine State Police tactical team fatally shot a man on a rooftop early Saturday after an hourslong standoff in which authorities said he opened fire at officers, two homes burned down and a person who fought with him apparently died.
The Canadian Press
Russian forces storm a detention facility to rescue staff taken hostage, killing hostage-takers
MOSCOW (AP) — Security forces stormed a detention center in southern Russia on Sunday, killing inmates accused of links to the Islamic State group who had taken two staff members hostage, state-funded news channel RT reported.
Canadian Press Videos
Don't take all your cash with you to the beach and other tips to avoid theft during a Hawaii holiday
Honolulu police recently received some attention on social media for recommending that beachgoers not leave their valuables unattended and instead take those items with them into the ocean in a waterproof bag. But both police and travel experts have other simple tips to keep your trip safe from theft.
BuzzFeed
Private Investigators And Detectives Are Sharing Their Wildest Cases, And OMG
"A Donald Trump supporter hired me to watch his neighbor because he was convinced his neighbor was 'a Soviet.'"
PA Media: UK News
Three arrested after boy, 16, killed by falling tree
Police and paramedics attended but the boy was pronounced dead at the scene.
BBC
Indian accused of plotting to murder Sikh leader extradited to US
Nikhil Gupta is charged with trying to hire a hitman to assassinate US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
The Daily Beast
Police Allege Man Punched Sixth-Grader in Racist Hate Crime
A white man in Washington has been arrested and placed on a $500,000 bail after allegedly targeting and attacking a Black sixth-grade student walking with classmates during a field trip.Paul Jonathan Bittner, 42, has been charged with malicious harassment and the assault of a child in the second-degree, according to the Whatcom County Jail.During a walking field trip to a nearby film center Wednesday, students from Whatcom Middle School, part of the Bellingham School District, were near the Bell
The Canadian Press
Woman holding large knife at Denver intersection shot and killed by police, chief says
DENVER (AP) — Officers shot and killed a woman who was holding a large, hunting-style knife at an intersection in downtown Denver on Sunday, police said.
People
Man Who Brought Child to Bank Robbery Inside a Texas Walmart Is Being Hunted by the FBI
The FBI said the man had a child in a shopping cart as he demanded cash from a teller at a bank inside a Walmart store
The Canadian Press
Nashville court grapples with details on school shooter that were leaked to media
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A media organization is due in court Monday after publishing details from leaked documents about the shooter who killed six people at a Nashville elementary school in March 2023, while the outlet sues for those records and others to be released to the public.
The Canadian Press
Shooting in Detroit suburb injures 9, leaving an 8-year-old in critical condition
ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Nine people were injured, including two young children and their mother, after a shooter opened fire at a splash pad in a Detroit suburb where families gathered to escape the summer heat Saturday. Police tracked the shooter to a home, where the man apparently shot himself to death, authorities said.
The Canadian Press
8 Israeli soldiers killed in southern Gaza in deadliest attack on Israeli forces in months
JERUSALEM (AP) — An explosion in southern Gaza killed eight Israeli soldiers, the military said Saturday, making it the deadliest attack on Israeli forces in months.

Latest Stories