Co-worker Violence Kills Two, Injures One in Separate Incidents

Colorado Springs, CO (WorkersCompensation.com) A woman and a man are dead at the hands of their co-workers in separate acts of violence this past week.  

In Colorado Springs, police said they found the body of 17-year-old Riley Whitelaw on Saturday in the breakroom of the Walgreens store where she worked. Managers found her when she failed to return from a break. Officers said Whitelaw had injuries to her neck and there was blood on the floor.  

According to police records, Whitelaw had complained to a manager that a co-worker Joshua Johnson, 28, had made passes at her and made her uncomfortable. She had asked not to be scheduled at the same time as him. Initially, managers honored Whitelaw’s request, but when she requested more hours, managers told her that she would have to work at the same time as Johnson.  

Whitelaw’s co-workers told police officers that Johnson “appeared to be acting jealous” after Whitelaw’s boyfriend started working at the same store as Whitelaw and Johnson three months ago. 

Police found Johnson about 100 miles outside of the city on June 12th. He had cuts and bruises on him, and told law enforcement that he had been attacked at a different Walgreens. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.  

Officials said surveillance video at the scene showed Johnson stacking boxes up in front of the camera to block the lens. Additionally, paper had been taped over the windows in an area of the breakroom, and a “restrooms closed” sign had been put up in the area to keep people away.  

In Bakersfield, Calif., a man confessed to authorities that he had beaten a co-worker to death because the thought the man was having an affair with his wife.  

Jose Gutierrez-Rosales told police that his co-workers teased and bullied him over an alleged affair between another co-worker and Gutierrez-Rosales’ estranged wife.  

At some point, Gutierrez-Rosales said, he’d had enough. When he and Hector Javier Castaneda Vasquez were working near an irrigation pipe on Di Giorgio Road east of Lamont, Gutierrez-Rosales struck Vasquez with a pipe.  

“We were there picking up the pipes,” he said. “I ate about two tacos, and I felt my body like strange, and then all of a sudden, I grabbed the pipe, and I just started going at him.” 

 Gutierrez-Rosales said he spoke to Vasquez as he was beating him, arrest records show.  

“This is for getting involved with my family,” Gutierrez-Rosales said he told Vasquez as he hit him. 

Vasquez suffered from multiple facial fractures as well as cuts to his face and the back of his head. Several of his teeth had also been knocked out, records show. Officials said Vasquez died at the scene. Co-workers told investigators they had witnessed the beating. One witness told police he initially thought Gutierrez-Rosales was beating a snake.  

Deputies arrested Gutierrez-Rosales and charged him with first-degree murder.  

It’s not clear from arrest records if Gutierrez-Rosales was married. Police reports indicate the woman he said his co-worker was having an affair with told officials that she and Gutierrez-Rosales had been in a relationship for about three months, but had separated before the killing. The woman said Gutierrez-Rosales had anger issues.  

Gutierrez-Rosales said that after the killing, he drove to Taft, but returned to Bakersfield on foot, asking God for forgiveness along the way. He told authorities that he knew he’d get caught.  

“I’m going to own up to it like a man,” he told detectives, according to reports.  

In Dinwiddie County, Va., a man faces assault charges after allegedly hitting a co-worker with board.  

Austin Cain, 28, of DeWitt, Va., was arrested and charged with one count of aggravated malicious wounding.  

Police said, Cain and the victim were at a job site in Petersburg around 1:50 p.m. on Wednesday when Cain allegedly struck the victim. The victim was airlifted to Chippenham Medical Center in Richmond with head injuries that were considered life-threatening.  

Petersburg Police Captain Christopher Buffkin said the victim was in critical but stable condition.  

Police have not released a motive for the attack, and the investigation is continuing.