RED FEATHER LAKES, Colo. — A day after one man was arrested in connection with a stabbing in Red Feather Lakes, a second suspect was named.
Larimer County Sheriff’s deputies charged 26-year-old Lorenzo Otranto of Lake Placid, N.Y. with assault after Tuesday’s stabbing, which reportedly occurred at a Rainbow Family gathering in the northwest part of Red Feather Lakes.
Police also arrested 37-year-old Norman Wheatley on an assault charge Wednesday. A total of four people were injured in the stabbing, and three — including Otranto and Wheatley — were hospitalized.
It’s been a tough month across the state for the Rainbow Family, a group that claims to be dedicated to achieving peace and love on earth.
All four people involved in Tuesday’s stabbing are thought to be involved with the Rainbow Family, the sheriff’s office indicated. This latest incident comes after two transient groups were involved in a Commerce City dog attack that left a toddler severely injured and another Rainbow Family member in jail earlier in the week.
The Rainbow Family is a loosely affiliated association of migratory people who hold regular gatherings around the country. Another one of these gatherings has been planned for Larimer County later this summer, police said.
Citing unnamed sources, the sheriff’s office said the next Larimer County gathering could be as large as 1,000 people.
“At other such gatherings in adjacent states, members of this association have been known to engage in various criminal activities, including possession/consumption of controlled substances, theft, and fraud,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a press release.
According to the group’s mission statement, members of the Rainbow Family support peace, love and freedom as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstream pop culture and capitalism. Those values seem to have been called into question during this recent run of violent incidents.