FREE
September 9, 2021
JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 15 | SPORTS: PAGE 16
365 days of eternity A year after her sons were killed a mother reflects on what’s lost and wonders what remains BY BOB WOOLEY BWOOLEY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The first thing you notice about Frankie Wikoff is how tiny she is. At 4’11”, she doesn’t look like she weighs more than 100 pounds, soaking wet. The second is the quiet melancholy — a profound sadness that permeates every conversation you have with her. She says she doesn’t sleep much anymore — a statement backed up by 2:30 a.m. emails and texts in which she questions the randomness of life, wondering why things ended this way. When her sons, Damian and Dillon Wikoff, were gunned down in a Walmart parking lot in Lakewood last year, it wasn’t just a story of two young lives meeting a tragic end. It was the tragic end to an equally tragic beginning — a story that started with guns and violence and ended the same way nearly 18 years later. Much of what happened inbetween, according to Frankie, was just life. A lot of unremarkable moments, the kind we can all relate to — a family that loved, fought, hurt, laughed, cried like other families. But in some ways, they weren’t like most families. They never really could be. Because before Dillon, the youngest of the Wikoff boys was born, his path, like that of his infant brother, toddler sister and young mother, was forever altered by one mad night. 2002 Frankie’s husband, Leon Clark Wikoff (he went by Clark), was just 26 years old in the early morning hours of Oct. 7, 2002. According to a synopsis obtained through Denver Police case files, officers were dispatched at 1:30 a.m. that morning to investigate reports of shots fired on West 46th Avenue. On the way, officers encountered a green Ford Explorer driven eastbound on West 49th Avenue at a high rate of speed. The driver was Clark Wikoff, after leaving a bar
VOLUME 17 | ISSUE 12
JCPH nixes masking requirement for 2-year-olds Change is response to preschool operator concerns STAFF REPORT
the second floor on the south side of the motel, continuing to fire his gun at Officer Engelbert,” it said. “Officer Engelbert then returned fire, striking the victim. The victim turned his gun on himself, put his gun in his mouth and fired.” Wikoff’s shootout with police and subsequent suicide happened in front of room 231. Inside room 231, a sleeping Frankie Wikoff, five months pregnant, awoke to the sound of gunfire. She said when she heard the gunshots, she was scared her husband was coming back, gun blazing, to shoot her. They’d had a nasty argument before he left the room that evening and she said he’d put the barrel of a pistol in her mouth and threatened to kill her. The shooting continued. Someone was yelling. She says she gathered up Damian, still an infant, and her young daughter, Trinity, and laid on the floor out of fear. Moments later, she heard voices on the balcony in front of her room and looked out the window, finally seeing what had happened. At 3:55 a.m., police would interview Frankie about events leading up to the deadly confrontation. Many of her answers that night were vague. She didn’t divulge a lot of what had happened over the
Two weeks after issuing an order requiring students and staff to wear masks in all Jefferson County school and childcare settings to wear masks, JCPH Executive Director Dawn Comstock announced she was amending the order in response to public feedback. The revised order, which was issued on Aug. 30, states that anyone age 3 and over who enters a school is required to wear a mask. Previously, masking had been required in schools and Childcare centers for everyone 2 and over. Comstock said she decided to make that change after JCPH hosted a town hall with more than 60 childcare owners and operators in the county. During the town hall, JCPH received feedback on JCPH’s Public Health Order. Two of the most common challenges with implementing the order were masking among 2-yearolds and maintaining six feet of social distance when children were unmasked during meal times, which the previous order also required. “While JCPH’s original order follows guidance from CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Colorado regarding appropriate ages for use of face coverings, we listened to those in our community who work with young children every day and have modified the age for required masking from age 2 and older to age 3 and older,” Comstock said in a JCPH press release announcing the change. The requirement that six feet of social distancing be maintained during meal and snack times and
SEE ETERNITY, P14
SEE JCPH, P2
Frankie Wikoff stands in front of her apartment in January 2021, five months after PHOTOS BY BOB WOOLEY her sons were killed while selling a gun to other teens.
A grieving mother holds a photo of herself and her sons.
following a night of hard drinking and cocaine use, as toxicology reports would later show. According to the incident report, the officer in pursuit attempted to pull the Explorer over and was fired upon by the driver. A chase ensued, ending when the Explorer pulled into the parking lot of a Motel 6 at 3050 W. 49th Avenue. At the motel, Clark Wikoff is alleged to have continued firing at the officer. The report explains what happened next. “The suspect exited his vehicle while it was still running, ran into the motel complex and went up to