For the second time in a month, someone cut down a tree planted in Longmont’s Prospect neighborhood honoring two people shot and killed at a Boulder business in 2010.

Longmont police Sgt. Matt Cage said the tree was cut down sometime overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday and is the fifth reported cut down since Oct. 16, all in the southern part of the city.

Last month, someone cut down the memorial tree at a park in Prospect neighborhood. Neighbors quickly gathered money and planted another one.

Now that one is down.

Sean Griffin and Staci Froderman Griffin, owners of Boulder Stove & Flooring were shot and killed at their Boulder store by a disgruntled employee in 2010. Friends of the Griffins’ daughter planted the tree about a year later.

The Griffins lived in Prospect neighborhood.

Cage said police don’t have any leads at the moment, but the tree cuttings appear to be related. He added that beat officers are currently working on the issue.

“They do appear to be similar in nature,” Cage said. “Most of these are probably happening at night.”

Prospect developer Kiki Wallace said that there are plans underway to replace the tree, and he wants to do so as soon as possible. He said the neighborhood has suffered a “rash” of tree cuttings that appear to be related.

“We’re not going to let some malcontent drive our tree planting plans,” Wallace said. “I want to do it right away, the sooner the better.”

Prospect resident Kelly Graham, who helped replace the first tree after it was cut down, said that a neighbor noticed at about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday that the tree had been cut down, and sent an email blast to the neighborhood.

Graham said there were no footprints in the snow, and another resident who has a window facing the park said she didn’t hear any power tools overnight.

“Whoever did this really needs a lot of love, and help,” she said.

She said residents are looking into buying another tree and have been talking with local nurseries. She added that they might wait to plant another tree until the police have had time to investigate.

“I don’t want another one to get cut down,” Graham said. “But we definitely want to restore it so it will be there for the family.”

Prospect residents are offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of the person or people responsible.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Longmont police at 303-651-8555 or Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at www.nococrimestoppers.com or 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

“Right now we don’t have any leads to follow up on,” Cage said. “We are relying on people to call us, so we can deal with it.”

John Bear: 303-684-5212, bearj@timescall.com or twitter.com/johnbearwithme