By David K. Li -
NBC News
Three high school seniors have been arrested after allegedly throwing a garden rock at a Colorado teen, killing her while driving outside Denver, authorities said Wednesday.
Alexa Bartell, 20, "was killed when a rock was thrown at her [car's] windshield while she was driving"
north of the 10600 block of Indiana Street around 10:45 p.m. in Westminster on April 19, according to with a statement from Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigators.
Bartell's car was the last of several cars "struck by large landscaping rocks in a series of rock throws that began shortly after 10:00 p.m. that night near 100th Avenue and Simms Street," troopers said. .
Alexa Bartell, 20, died while driving her car after being struck by a rock. Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
Nicholas 'Mitch' Karol-Chik, Joseph Koenig and Zachary Kwak, all 18, were taken into custody at their homes in Arvada, according to the Sheriff's Office report.
The three suspects are students of the 12th.
Jefferson County Public Schools grade, said Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office.
One goes to Ralston Valley High School, another attends Standley Lake High School and a third takes classes online, the spokeswoman said.
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A representative for the school district could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
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It was the stone thrown by the suspects that killed Bartell and not the ensuing crash, which took place about 20 miles northwest of Denver and 10 miles southeast of Boulder, officials said.
"The rock went through Alexa Bartell's [car] windshield, struck her and killed her
," Kelly told NBC News on Wednesday.
"The rocks we have described in this crime are approximately four to six inches in size and weigh five pounds each. They are large cobblestone landscaping rocks."
The suspects were traveling in a black 2016 Chevy Silverado, though it was not immediately clear who was driving or who threw the rock that killed Bartell, officials said.
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"We believe the vehicle was traveling in the opposite direction of the victims," Kelley said.
All three suspects were jailed on suspicion of first-degree murder for extreme indifference
, according to the Sheriff's Office.
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Although first-degree murder is typically associated with a motive and a chosen victim, Colorado's extreme indifference statute is used for defendants who seek to kill anyone, but a specific person, explained Ann England, a professor of clinical law at the University of Colorado.
"If he pulls out an AK-47 and starts shooting into a mass of people, there's no question that his intent was to kill" even if he didn't target a specific person, England said.
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"Throwing a rock [and filing a first-degree murder charge] is difficult. Does throwing a rock carry the risk [of possibly killing someone]? Throwing a rock at a moving car, now that someone's dead, seems obvious." huh? I'm not entirely sure."
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It was not immediately clear if the three defendants had retained an attorney or been assigned a criminal defense attorney to speak for them.
Phone calls to publicly listed numbers of relatives of Koenig, Kwak and Karol-Chik were not returned.
The three teens are expected to appear in court Thursday morning.