DENVER -- A Southwest Airlines jet carrying 125 passengers and five crew members slid off a snowy taxiway at Denver International Airport on Saturday afternoon, officials said. 

Flight 1905, a Boeing 737 traveling from Oakland to Denver,  landed on Runway 35 Right in Denver and exited the runway onto a high-speed taxiway, NBC News' Jay Blackman reported. The aircraft slid off the taxiway onto the grass.

An airport spokesperson said no injuries had been reported, NBC station KUSA reported.

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Those on the plane were taken to the British Airways lounge, KUSA said.

Photos posted on www.nycaviation.com showed passengers coming down a stairway from the plane in heavy snow.

Snow, sometimes heavy, was falling in the Denver area, and temperatures were dropping from the 30s into the 20s, The Weather Channel reported.

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Police in Denver arrested three suspects late Wednesday in connection with the bar fire that was started to cover up the murders of five people. 

Denver police and federal agents arrested Dexter Lewis, 22, Joseph Hill, 27, and Lynell Hill, 24, around 11 p.m. Wednesday, Denver Police Commander Ron Saunier told reporters at a press conference Thursday.

Saunier said the motive in setting fire to Fero’s Bar & Grill was robbery.  

“They came in there, it wound up being a robbery,” Saunier said. “The arson was set to try to cover up the crime scene.”

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The Denver medical examiner identified the victims as Young Fero, 63, the bar’s owner, Daria M. Pohl, 22, Kellene Fallon, 45, Ross Richter, 29, and Tereasa Beesley, 45.

Saunier said detectives believe the victims were killed before the fire started. He also said there were obvious signs of trauma to the victims’ bodies.

Saunier said they do not expect to make any more arrests, but they will continue to investigate and execute search warrants. “At this time we believe we have everybody identified that’s been involved in this,” he said.

The three men are being held on various charges, including five counts of first-degree murder, felony murder, aggravated robbery, and arson. More charges are likely to follow.

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The fire was reported at 1:47 a.m., just before the bar’s 2 a.m. closing time Wednesday morning. 

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Updated at 11:11 a.m.: Five people found dead inside a torched Denver bar were killed before the building was set on fire, officials said Wednesday.

Denver police Det. John White confirmed the deaths of four women and one man at Fero's Bar & Grill.

“It appears there was some trauma to the bodies – it also appears to be arson,” White told reporters at a morning briefing, the Denver Post reported.

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Police and fire officials said they are investigating the incident as an arson-homicide, the Denver Post reported.

Denver Police Cmdr. Ron Saunier said detectives believe the victims were killed before the fire started and the blaze was set to mask the homicide, 9news.com reported.

"It's going to be a long, drawn-out investigation at this point," Saunier said, according to the Post.

The names of the victims were not immediately released, and autopsies were pending. Police do not believe anyone else was in the bar at the time.

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Firefighters were first called to the scene at 1:47 a.m. Wednesday, and the fire was declared under control around 2:22 a.m.

The small bar is situated between a check-cashing business and a tailor shop in a strip mall on Colorado Blvd.

This is a breaking news story - please check back for further updates.

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PHOENIX -- Police have arrested an Arizona man who allegedly filmed his 16-year-old nephew walking city streets dressed in a sheet and carrying a fake grenade launcher, authorities said on Wednesday.

Michael David Turley, 39, was arrested Monday over the making of the video, in which an unidentified narrator says he aims to discover how quickly police in Phoenix would respond following the fatal shooting of 12 people at the screening of the “Dark Knight Rises” Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado, in July.

The bizarre, amateurish video depicts a person with a fairly realistic but fake grenade launcher walking around a Phoenix intersection in what appears to be a blue sheet with dark material covering his head and face.

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Made eight days after the shooting at a screening of a Batman movie, the film was posted on YouTube and titled, "Dark Knight Shooting Response, Rocket Launcher Police Test."

"Given this event, I wanted to run a little test here in Phoenix, Arizona," the narrator says in the film. "I want to find out how safe I really am, and I want to know the response time of the Phoenix police department."

The filmmaker claims it took 15 minutes for police to respond.

The first officer finds the filmmaker and the teen standing in a driveway. The officer calmly tells the boy to put down the weapon and the man to put down the camera. He didn't draw his gun.

Officer James Holmes, a police spokesman, said Turley told the officer they were just filming a movie, and the officer took down their names and left.

Three Aurora theater shooting victims suing Cinemark; theater to reopen in 2013

After interviewing people who called 911 and later seeing the video posted on YouTube, police arrested Turley.

"It surprised us that he actually put that video on YouTube," Holmes said.

Not 'fun and games'
Holmes said the police response took just over three minutes from the first call, and a helicopter and SWAT team was dispatched as backup.

Turley was charged with knowingly giving a false impression of a terrorist act, endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and misconduct involving a simulated explosive.

He is being held in county jail on a $5,000 bond. If convicted, he faces up to 45 months in prison, said Maricopa County Attorney's Office spokesman Jerry Cobb.

"We take something like this seriously," Phoenix police spokesman Officer James Holmes said. "It wasn't fun and games to all the people who were affected by this. We don't behave like this in this country to prove a point."

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The 16-year-old has not been arrested, Holmes said.

"The video told us what Turley was intentionally trying to do -- creating a terrorist hoax for his own personal ideals," he said.

Turley doesn't have a listed phone number. He didn't immediately respond to messages sent Wednesday through the YouTube account.

An attorney for Turley could not be immediately reached for comment.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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DENVER -- A seven-year-old girl is recovering at a Denver hospital from a rare case of bubonic plague she likely contracted from fleas from a dead squirrel at a southwestern Colorado campground, hospital officials said on Wednesday.

Sierra Jane Downing is "fortunate to be alive," but is on the road to recovery after her near-fatal bout with the disease, the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children said in a statement.

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It is the first confirmed case of bubonic plague in Colorado since 2006, the hospital said.

Sierra's father Sean Downing described how his daughter had a seizure and stopped breathing for a couple of minutes.

"I thought she died, and I was just running for the ER," he said.

Read the story on local NBC station 9NEWS.com

At first, Sierra's parents -- and even Sierra herself -- thought the illness was a flu. "She told me, 'Mommy, this is just the flu. Can't we go home?'" Darcy Downing said.

Bacteria that cause bubonic plague are carried by rodents and can be transmitted to humans through parasitic fleas or the handling of infected animals.

The plague is believed to have killed 25 million Europeans during the Middle Ages, when it was known as the Black Death.

Today, the disease is treated with antibiotics, and seven U.S. cases a year are reported on average, most of them in the western states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Tried to bury dead squirrel
Sierra was at an outing with her family in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, last month when she came across a dead squirrel that she tried to bury, hospital spokeswoman Angie Anania said.

"She never touched the squirrel, but laid her jacket next to the dead squirrel, and the fleas looking for a new host might have jumped onto the jacket," Anania told Reuters.

The girl tied the jacket around her waist, and doctors discovered bites on her torso, which led them to believe the plague came from the squirrel encounter, Anania said.

Sierra was taken by her parents to a Pagosa Springs hospital on Aug. 24 suffering from a high fever and seizures. She was later flown to the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, which has facilities and pediatric specialists better equipped to care for gravely ill children.

The girl's temperature reached 107 degrees Fahrenheit, and doctors detected swollen lymph nodes in her groin after she complained of severe leg pain, said Dr. Jennifer Snow, the pediatrician who treated her in Denver.

Once the diagnosis was made, Sierra was placed on a special antibiotic regimen. She may be discharged in a week, the hospital said.

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A twister that touched down in Colorado's high-country on Saturday is estimated to be the second-highest tornado ever recorded in the U.S. by the National Weather Service.

There were four different reported sightings of the high-altitude hit the northeast side of Mount Evans — a prominent mountain located about 60 miles west of Denver. The National Weather Service estimates the tornado's touched down at about  11,900 feet in elevation.

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Bob Glancy, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Boulder, Colo., told NBC News that this tornado above the treeline is "not unheard of," but "just unusual." Most tornadoes in high terrain are weak, he said.

For the last two decades, Colorado has averaged 50 tornadoes a year. But Glancy said the "vast majority" occur on the plains east of Interstate 25.

Colorado Springs resident Josh Deere told The Denver Post he saw the funnel as he was driving with his family to the top of Mount Evans.

"As we drove past it, we were able to look back and had some spectacular views of it as it spun and then eventually broke up as it entered the mountain cove," Deere told the Post.

The highest recorded tornado occurred in 2004, according to Glancy, over Rockwell Pass in California's Sequoia National Park. That twister was estimated to be at 12,000 to 12,500 feet.

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As the families of last Friday's theater shooting victims jet across the country to attend memorial services for their loved ones, major airlines that serve the Denver area are offering some financial relief.

United Airlines, which has a hub at Denver International, is providing free air travel to the Mile High City for victims' families from outside Colorado, The Denver Post reported. Aurora, one of Denver's largest suburbs, is located about 18 miles from the airport.

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"All of us were impacted by these events, and we want to help in any way we can," the airline told The Denver Post.

An uncle of 27-year-old victim Alex Sullivan reportedly thanked United on Facebook for accommodating about 25 family members to attend funeral services in Denver — many of whom live in Rochester, N.Y.

Southwest Airlines also serves Denver, and the Dallas-based carrier is giving families complimentary travel to Colorado. "We provided travel for the families of the victims and we’re working closely with local partners to accommodate their needs at this time," Southwest spokesperson Michelle Agnew said in a statement. Southwest is "available to help as many families as needed," she said.

Denver-based Frontier Airlines is doing the same. "As we are based in Colorado, you can imagine how many of us were impacted by last Friday’s events," airline spokesperson Lindsey Carpenter said in a statement. "We are just glad we can be of help to our grieving neighbors."

The Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance, a victims advocacy group, is working with the families and airlines to book these flights.

This move by the travel industry comes alongside news that some Colorado hospitals are limiting or waiving victims' medical bills.

The July 20 shooting at an Aurora, Colo. movie theater left 12 dead and 58 injured.

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DENVER -- A Denver police officer trying to break up a confrontation was shot and killed Sunday at a city park where hundreds of families had gathered for a free weekly jazz concert before gunfire erupted and sent hundreds fleeing.

The officer, who was shot in the head, was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, police spokesman Sonny Jackson said. The Denver Post reported that one person has been taken into custody but added they had not been confirmed as a suspect.

NBC News station KUSA reported that officers were seen searching a dumpster near a lake on Sunday night.

According to the newspaper, the slain officer was a single mother who was originally from Detroit. She was a seven-year veteran of the police force, the Post reported.

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At least three shots were fired shortly after the jazz band playing on a lake-side pavilion stage finished, sending waves of people running through park grounds where some concert-goers who were initially unaware of the shooting remained seated on picnic blankets and lawn chairs.

'We will not surrender'
More than 1,000 people were at the City Park Jazz concert, the fourth of 10 shows scheduled for this summer in the annual series that draws families and people of all backgrounds to one of the city's more popular summer events. The mayor said late Sunday that the concerts should continue.

"We will not surrender what we consider special in this city to anyone," Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said. 

Nakira Doss, a jazz singer herself, said she hopes the series continues. The 28-year-old mother was at the show Sunday and sitting near the stage with her children, ages 4, 5 and 7, when she heard at least two shots. As people ran past, she said told her children to "get on the ground" and then she laid herself over them.

"I'm trying to show them music, but at what cost," she said, nodding toward her own children.

City Park is one Denver's most famous and sprawls across several hundred acres east of downtown. It holds the Denver Zoo, Museum of Nature and Science, as well as ponds, trails and recreational fields.

Yellow tape
Samuel Bell, 19, of Denver, said he was in the parking lot looking for a space for his scooter, which police later cordoned off with yellow tape. He said he heard several shots.

"We just arrived at the park. It was crowded, it was looking fun," Bell said. "And then 'pa- pa-pa-pa' outta nowhere.

"We just ducked," Bell said. "We pulled off in enough time to get away. It was crazy."

He said he saw police officers administering CPR. He estimated he was about 10 to 20 feet away from where the officer was shot.

NBC News station KUSA, msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Updated at 7:16 a.m. ET: Two men who admitted to driving around Denver with their dead friend's corpse and using the dead man's debit card to fund a night at a strip club were sentenced on Thursday to probation, prosecutors said.

Robert Young, 43, and Mark Rubinson, 25, both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of abusing the corpse of Jeffrey Jarrett last August, the Denver District Attorney's Office said in a release.

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Young also pleaded guilty to felony identity theft for using Jarrett's credit card.

Neither man was accused of killing Jarrett, who died at 43 from a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol, Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office told Reuters.  

Under the plea agreement, Young was given a two-year deferred sentence and must undergo "mental health evaluation and treatment, substance abuse assessment and treatment, and cognitive behavioral therapy," the release said.

He also must submit to random drug and alcohol testing, perform 50 hours of community service and pay $1,289.56 in restitution, in addition to maintaining full-time employment.

Rubinson was given a one-year suspended sentence and was ordered to the same drug and alcohol monitoring, therapy and work conditions, and perform 200 hours of community service.

Mexican restaurant
Prosecutors said Young and Rubinson found Jarrett unresponsive at the Denver home Young and Jarrett shared, and instead of calling 911 they put the dead man in the back seat of Rubinson’s SUV and went for a ride, local television station KWGN reported.

Police said that the men ate at Viva Burrito restaurant and fueled up Rubinson's SUV at a convenience store all paid for with Jarrett's debit card, KWGN also reported. The men then unloaded Jarrett's body back at his house and visited Shotgun Willie's, a popular Denver-area strip club where they withdrew $400 at an ATM from Jarrett's account, it said.

Only after leaving the club did the men call the police to report Jarrett's death.

As conditions of their probationary sentence, both men must write letters of apology to Jarrett's family.

Prosecutor Kandace Gerdes told the judge that the plea deals "were largely the result of the (Jarrett) family's compassion," the district attorney's office said.

Denver TV station 7News compared to case to the 1989 movie "Weekend At Bernie's."

"The film is about two friends who arrive at their boss' beachfront home for a weekend getaway to find out their boss had been killed as the result of a mob hit," the website explained. "The two men then cart the body around town, hoping to save the weekend of luxury they had planned and hoping they don't raise any suspicions."

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Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

DENVER -- Investigators said the attractive single mom who vanished from western Colorado 4½ years ago was running an escort service, but her father is more blunt.

"I think 'escort' is kind of a polite word for prostitution," said Frank Birgfeld, whose daughter's remains were found in a dry creek bed in a Colorado desert this week.

Thirty-four-year-old Paige Birgfeld was twice divorced and living with her three children in Grand Junction, about 200 miles west of Denver, when she disappeared in June 2007. Friends knew her as a devoted mom who sold kitchen products and did other jobs.

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Her winning looks and apparent double life attracted widespread media attention to the mystery of her disappearance, including a "48 Hours" segment called "The Secret Life of Paige Birgfeld" in 2008.

Frank Birgfeld, an articulate, gravel-voiced 68-year-old who lives outside Denver, remembers his daughter as buoyant and positive.

"Man, she is, she was very rarely negative," he told The Associated Press Thursday. "Always looked at things on the bright side. Had a great smile and showed it a lot. And clearly what she liked the most was showing off her kids."

Birgfeld said he didn't know about his daughter's business.

"Absolutely, we weren't aware of it," he said.

In retrospect, Birgfeld sees clues, including one of her ex-husband's cars, a Ford Focus, which she kept for reasons her father didn't understand.

She offered different explanations. Her name was on the loan. She couldn't sell it. It was just easier to keep it.

"That was the car she was using for that purpose. I look back, it's obvious," he said.

Deputies learned about Paige Birgfeld's business, called Models Inc., in the course of interviewing acquaintances after she disappeared, Mesa County Sheriff's Sgt. Matt Lewis said. They didn't investigate whether the escort service was a front for prostitution.

"That was not the focus of this investigation," he said. "We were looking to piece together her life."

Sheriff's deputies and volunteers staged multiple searches — including several in the gulley in neighboring Delta County where two hikers discovered skeletal remains on Tuesday.

Lewis said it appeared the body had been buried once and erosion eventually exposed it. Frank Birgfeld, who visited the site Wednesday, said he thinks his daughter's body had been dumped nearby and was washed into the gully.

He said dental records confirmed the remains were his daughter's. Sheriff's investigators say they are awaiting DNA tests to confirm the identity, but they believe the remains are Paige Birgfeld's.

Her burned car was found in Grand Junction on July 1, 2007. She had been missing for three days at that point, The Denver Post reported.

No one has been arrested. In October 2007, investigators identified Lester Ralph Jones, then 56, as a suspect.

Jones was a client of Models Inc. and remains a suspect, Lewis said. Investigators haven't spoken with him since the remains were found.

Phone numbers listed for Jones were disconnected. It wasn't clear whether he had an attorney.

Frank Birgfeld, who describes himself as "a person of decent morals," said the sex trade is a foreign world to him.

A reporter once asked him what he would say to Paige about her business if she stepped into the room at that moment.

"If she walked in the door right now, I wouldn't say anything," Birgfeld said. "I would just hug her."

Connie Flukey, executive director of the Abby and Jennifer Recovery Foundation, which was formed tro organize large-scale seaches searches for missing persons in memory of Abby and Jennifer Blagg, who went missing from their Grand Junction home in 2001, told the Post the discovery of Birgfeld's body is "bittersweet."

"I always knew she would be found someday," Flukey told the newspaper by cellphone , reached on her cellphone en route to the site where Paige Birgfeld's body was found. "Today was that day. At the same time, it's heartbreaking to see what the family is going through.

"At least they can bring her home."

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this story.

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