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The Union Station area continues to experience a significant amount of violent crime, despite the Denver Police Department‘s increased focus there at the behest of Mayor Michael Hancock. The latest example? A fatal shooting on Saturday evening near the Denver Skatepark.
Union Station isn’t one of Denver’s 78 official neighborhoods. However, the DPD carefully tracks offenses using boundaries seen in this screen capture from the Denver Crime Map maintained by the city; the Denver Skatepark is on the northern edge.
Denver Crime Map
Word of the latest shooting was first shared by the DPD via a Twitter alert at 7:02 p.m. on Saturday, April 23: “DPD is investigating a shooting in the 2200 BLK 19th St. 1 adult male victim located and pronounced deceased. 2200 BLK 19th St shut down at this time, alternative routes advised.”
That block includes the aforementioned skatepark, at 2205 19th Street. So far, neither the victim nor any suspect has been identified.
Last summer, 19th Street addresses popped up in many shooting reports, often tied to the 1900 block of Blake Street, close to a mile away from the Denver Skatepark but within the DPD’s boundaries for the Union Station area. Unlike the April 23 shooting, they usually happened late at night, when nearby bars were closing for the evening. In recent years, many gun-related incidents have occurred around let-out. For example, in the early hours of April 9, a man suffered a gunshot wound in the 2000 block of Market Street, following the Colorado Rockies’ 2022 home debut.
According to our roundup of crime statistics over the two-week period between April 5 and April 19, only four Denver neighborhoods — DIA, Capitol Hill, Central Park (formerly Stapleton) and Five Points — registered more total crimes than the 105 notched by the Union Station area. Eight of those Union Station offenses were categorized as violent, defined by the DPD as murder, robbery or aggravated assault.
Denver crime statistics from January 1 through April 21, the most recent dates for which figures are available, record at least 1,361 total crimes in Union Station. Of those, 43 had addresses on 19th Street — most in the Union Station area, but a handful in the Central Business District, or CBD. The majority of 19th Street offenses qualify as relatively minor, including traffic-related issues and public-nuisance beefs, but a number involved firearms.
Those with information about the shooting by the Denver Skatepark can contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867).
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