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Violence again flared in the metro area over the weekend of August 19-21, with multiple shootings and stabbings in Denver and Aurora, and a drive-by shooting in Longmont claiming the life of a thirteen-year-old who’d been playing basketball in a park.
Although the Denver Police Department recorded more than 100 violent crimes from August 5 through 11, the pace of such episodes appeared to ebb during the weekend of August 12-14, when the DPD twitter page issued bulletins about a single shooting and no stabbings. But the account was busier a week later, with the report of a stabbing near the intersection of 29th Street and Brighton Boulevard coming in at 2:07 a.m. on Friday, August 19. A suspect was taken into custody after wounding an adult female, who was transported to a nearby hospital with serious injuries.
Less than 24 hours later, at 12:16 a.m. Saturday, August 20, the DPD distributed an alert about a shooting on the 1400 block of Uinta Street in the East Colfax neighborhood. Two victims were initially located, with a third injured individual added later that morning.
At 9:46 a.m. on August 20, word came of a stabbing on the 3200 block of South Parker Road, in the Kennedy neighborhood. Two victims were reported — one who was stabbed and a second with different but still serious injuries. At 10:21 a.m. on Sunday, August 21, a shooting occurred in the vicinity of 34th and Blake streets; the adult male victim was expected to survive.
The Aurora Police Department dealt with plenty of calls over the weekend as well, as exemplified by a tweet about a shooting at 1070 South Sable Boulevard that went out at 11:34 a.m. on Friday, August 19. Two victims were hospitalized with unspecified injuries.
At 3:09 a.m. on Saturday, August 20, the APD distributed an alert about a 22-year-old woman with “a non-life-threatening gunshot wound” who was transported to a hospital by a friend. Investigators believed the shooting happened “near Peoria/Exposition,” but they couldn’t be certain because “the victim and her friend are not forthcoming with info.”
Another shooting occurred in Aurora at around 1 a.m. on Sunday, August 21, close to the intersection of East 14th Avenue and Potomac Street; the injuries sustained by a male victim weren’t deemed life-threatening. And at 7:43 p.m. that evening, the APD revealed that an adult male had been kidnapped by multiple suspects from near East 14th and Akron, but managed to escape. Officers are looking for a white Chevrolet pickup thought to have been involved in the crime.
That same evening, a vigil was held near a basketball court at Kingston Park, at St. Clair Avenue and Kensington Street in Longmont, where the Longmont Police Department said a gunman opened fire on thirteen-year-old Zay Rosales and his fifteen-year-old cousin on Saturday, August 20; Rosales later died. Yahir Solis, nineteen, has been arrested in the case, and a GoFundMe page has been launched in Rosales’s name. “No mother should have to bury her thirteen-year-old son,” it reads. “This senseless act of violence has left a family broken beyond words.”
Anyone with information about these offenses can contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867).
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