Man charged with murder in deadly Denver shooting arrested in Nebraska

A Colorado man charged with murder in a fatal March shooting in Denver's Whittier neighborhood was arrested Sunday in Nebraska, police said.

According to court records, 30-year-old Zachary Terrell Rice was charged with first-degree murder following the March shooting that killed 37-year-old Marvin McCullough.

Witnesses told police that there had been an ongoing feud between Rice and McCullough and that Rice admitted to killing McCullough just days after the shooting, claiming that it was “either me or him,” according to one affidavit shows.

Shortly before 7 p.m. on March 30, Denver officers responded to reports of shots fired at East 29th Avenue and North Gilpin Street — near Fuller Park, where known gang members were having a barbecue in the neighborhood, according to Rice's arrest warrant.

When officers arrived, they found McCullough sitting in the driver's seat of a Gold Mercury Cougar parked across the street from the park with five gunshot wounds to the right side of his body, police said in the affidavit. Paramedics took the 37-year-old to hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

Police said McCullough was an “extensively documented” gang member who attended the barbecue.

Four shell casings were found in the car, meaning the gun was most likely fired from inside the vehicle and McCullough knew the shooter, police said in the affidavit.

Rice, McCullough and three other people were all in the car at the time of the shooting, witnesses told police. At least one of the other passengers in the car told police it happened too quickly for them to tell who shot the victim.

Denver police received five anonymous tips between March 30 and April 2, all of which included information about the same suspect as well as photos and physical descriptions, the affidavit said. The tipsters' descriptions matched statements from witnesses in the area of ​​the shooting, police said.

All five clues pointed to a gang member named “Zachary” who went by the alias “BG” or “Baby Goose,” police said. One person said Rice threatened McCullough before the park shooting.

Rice, who was on federal probation at the time of the shooting, had been arrested multiple times before and had pleaded guilty to assault, motor vehicle theft and several weapons offenses, according to court records.