Colorado teens charged in fatal rock-throwing spree took pic of victim’s car

The three Colorado teenagers accused of chucking a rock through the window of a 20-year-old driver, killing her, returned to the crash scene and snapped a photo of the victim’s vehicle as a “memento,” according to arrest records.

Alexa Bartell was killed last Wednesday night when Joseph Koenig, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak allegedly hurled a heavy landscaping rock through her windshield in Arvada during a twisted rock-throwing spree, authorities have said.

Bartell crashed her car into a field and died on scene.

After the teens fled, Kwak allegedly told the others, “We have to go back and see that,” according to an arrest affidavit provided to the Post. They went back and then Kwak took a photo of the car as a “memento.”

As the teens drove home, Koenig and Karol-Chik talked about how the three were now “blood brothers” and could never speak of what happened, Kwak told investigators.

The next day, Kwak and Koenig met to “get their stories straight,” according to the affidavit.

The trio — all 18 and high school seniors — appeared in court for the first time on Thursday. They are charged with first-degree murder with extreme indifference with additional charges expected to be filed at a later date. 

A judge ordered they be held without bond, according to KDVR.

Bartell was found dead by her friend who had been talking to her on the phone when the rock hit her, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said. The friend tracked her location down using an app after Bartell went silent.

Bartell was killed by the rock and not the crash, the sheriff’s office said. Koenig was the one who allegedly threw the rock that killed Bartell, Karol-Chik told investigators.

When the rock smashed through her windshield, Kwak told authorities it sounded like a “rail gun” shooting concrete.

Shocking photos show the shattered windshield and the back window blown out.

The three are suspected of carrying out several other similar rock attacks on drivers the same night that Bartell was killed, police said. 

The string of attacks started just after 10 p.m. and at least seven vehicles were targeted, with another two drivers suffering minor injuries. Bartell was hit around 10:45 p.m.

The large landscaping rocks were taken from the edge of a Walmart parking lot near Denver and loaded in the backseat of a Chevy Silverado 1500 pickup truck, a witness told investigators. When police asked how many rocks they grabbed, the witness said “as much as they could carry.”

The witness told investigators he “knew something bad was going to happen,” so he insisted the others take him home, which they did, the court documents showed.

When they dropped the witness off, Koenig was driving, Karol-Chik was in the front passenger’s seat, and Kwak was behind Mitch, according to the witness. 

Karol-Chik told investigators that he and Koenig were involved in throwing objects — including a statue and other rocks — at vehicles since February on at least 10 separate days.