DENVER — Twenty-one shooting incidents in Colorado over the seven days from May 29 through June 4, 2022, left a total of six people dead and 15 others injured.
9NEWS compiled those numbers as part of a TEGNA project to understand the human toll of gun violence in a single week. Nationwide, at least 450 people died and at least 900 more were wounded that same week, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive and analyzed by TEGNA station investigative reporters.
The following details of the incidents came from court files, police records, Crime Stoppers bulletins, and press releases and social media posts from law enforcement agencies.
Sunday, May 29, 2022
1:55 a.m.
- Location: Denver – 15th and Market streets
- Incident: A large fight led someone in a vehicle to open fire, shooting three rounds that strike two vehicles, one of them occupied. The shooter walked away from a 2013 Buick Regal parked on the other side of the street just as police officers arrived. They did not realize the man was the shooting suspect, and he evaded capture. Officers recovered two handguns, a 9-round magazine, a 13-round magazine and $1,837 in cash from the vehicle.
- Victim(s): A 22-year-old man was in a vehicle that was hit by gunfire but was not injured.
- Status: Unsolved
3:30 p.m.
- Location: Denver – Central Park Neighborhood
- Incident: A group of people in a stolen car cruised through a parking lot at the Central Park Recreation Center, 9651 Martin Luther King Blvd., apparently breaking into vehicles. Two men leaving the center saw the group and ran to their own car, which had been broken into. A chase ensued through the neighborhood, and people in the two vehicles exchanged gunfire. Police later recovered 24 shell casings. A bullet hit at least one home. The vehicle being pursued crashed at 8968 E. 25th Ave., where an unknown number of people bailed out and ran. A 15-year-old girl who was in the car collapsed a short distance away, wounded by four gunshots. Police apprehended a 15-year-old boy who was armed with a Polymer 80 9mm handgun with no serial number (a so-called “ghost gun”). Another person who fled then carjacked a man several blocks away.
- Victim(s): 15-year-old girl
- Status: Denver police arrested four people:
– Two men, ages 38 and 30, face multiple counts of attempted first-degree murder. They are suspected of being the two people who came out of the recreation center and chased the other vehicle. Each of them is suspected of firing rounds. One man has a hearing scheduled in June where a plea agreement may be announced, and the other is scheduled to go on trial in August.
– The 15-year-old boy with the ghost gun pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, felony menacing and possession of a handgun as a juvenile. He was sentenced to probation but faces a hearing next month at which a judge will consider a motion to revoke that probation for unspecified violations of the requirements he agreed to follow.
– A 28-year-old woman who was a girlfriend of one of the men facing attempted murder charges was arrested on suspicion of attempting to influence a public official for allegedly lying to police about his whereabouts. Prosecutors opted not to file charges and the case was dropped.
5:30 p.m.
- Location: Denver – 1000 block of South Bryant Street and 2500 block of West Mississippi Avenue
- Incident: Three alleged members of a street gang rode around in a car, then got into a chase with members or associates of a rival street gang. The three allegedly open fire in multiple locations, hitting one person in the face in the 1000 block of Bryant Street and shooting into a home in the 2500 block of West Mississippi Avenue.
- Victim(s): A 19-year-old man was shot. A 19-year-old woman, 70-year-old man, and 71-year-old woman were shot at but not injured.
- Status: A Denver grand jury indicted 13 alleged members of the “Too Damn Smooth” gang on a total of 255 felony counts for crimes involving 113 victims. Three of the 13 were indicted in this incident. Each of the three men, ages 18, 20, and 22, faces the following charges in these shootings: four counts of attempted first-degree murder; one count of first-degree assault; two counts of menacing; three counts of attempted first-degree assault; and two counts of illegal discharge of a firearm. All three have court appearances pending.
10:06 p.m.
- Location: Pueblo – 1000 block of East Evans Avenue
- Incident: Someone shot and wounded two people.
- Victim(s): Unknown age woman and unknown age man
- Status: Pueblo police arrested a 29-year-old man on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder and other charges. Police issued a news release with the man’s mugshot. Then, for unknown reasons, prosecutors dismissed the case and a judge sealed the files.
Monday, May 30
9:55 a.m.
- Location: Greeley – 2100 block of Fifth Avenue
- Incident: A man threatened several people and shot and wounded a man, then drove off and evaded police by barreling through a railroad crossing moments before a train came along.
- Victim(s): 23-year-old man
Status: Greeley police arrested a 34-year-old man with a long criminal record. He reached a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to robbery, felony menacing, and theft charges. A judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
4:30 p.m.
- Location: Aurora – East 16th Avenue and North Alton Street
- Incident: Someone shot and killed a man sitting in the passenger seat of a car, then drove his body to Denver and dumped it in an alley between the 1600 block of Willow and Xanthia streets.
- Victim(s): Ricardo Ryans, 44
- Status: No arrests
Tuesday, May 31
No incidents
Wednesday, June 1
12:45 a.m.
- Location: Colorado Springs – 4400 block of Burton Way
- Incident: Someone opened fire on a car where a group of friends was talking, hitting one of them, who died a short time later at a hospital.
- Victim(s): Hoani Bartlett, 19
- Status: No arrests
9:20 p.m.
- Location: Larimer County – 3900 block of Mariah Lane just outside Fort Collins
Incident: During a standoff, a man wanted on multiple charges fired a single shot, and a Larimer County sheriff’s deputy returned fire. The man died, although a forensic pathologist concluded the bullet wound he suffered was not fatal. Instead, the cause of death was listed as a combination of a fentanyl overdoe, heart disease, and stress – possibly exacerbated by cancer and liver disease.
Victim(s): Robert Webb, 66
Status: Local district attorney ruled that the shooting by the officer was justified.
Thursday, June 2
12:48 p.m.
- Location: Lafayette – 12000 block of Flagg Drive
- Incident: An attorney called 911 to report a body inside a home. After police arrived, they encountered a man and a woman outside the home with their attorneys. Inside, they found a man dead of gunshot wounds.
- Victim(s): Nicholas Wilson, 34
- Status: Police arrested the 38-year-old man at the home when they arrived. He faces a first-degree murder charge and is scheduled to go on trial in early 2024.
3:32 p.m.
- Location: Denver – 2800 block of North Osceola Street
- Incident: A 911 caller reported hearing a gunshot and a man yelling that he shot himself. Police suspected someone else shot and wounded the man, but he refused to cooperate with investigators.
- Victim(s): 20-year-old man
- Status: No arrests
5:20 p.m.
- Location: Aurora – alley in the 1500 block of Alton Street
Incident: Aurora Police officers responded to a report of shots fired, observed a blood trail and followed it to a nearby bus stop, where they found a man bleeding. He refused to cooperate with investigators. - Victim(s): 32-year-old man
- Status: No arrests
Friday, June 3
1 a.m.
- Location: Denver – 3500 block of Grove Street
- Incident: Someone shot a man riding a motorized scooter. The victim died a short time later at a hospital.
- Victim(s): Scott Ligocki Jr., 40
- Status: No arrests
7:01 a.m.
- Location: Lakewood – 5200 block of West Colfax Avenue
Incident: An argument in the parking lot of a convenience store led to gunfire, which caused unspecified injuries to a man. - Victim(s): Unknown age man
- Status: No arrests
11:30 a.m.
- Location: Lakewood – 800 block of Sheridan Boulevard
- Incident: Two juveniles got into a dispute in a culvert beneath Sheridan Boulevard; one was shot and wounded.
- Victim(s): Unknown
- Status: A teenage boy faces unspecified charges in juvenile court.
5:54 p.m.
- Location: Garden City – 2600 block of 8th Avenue
- Incident: Two men got into a dispute outside a marijuana dispensary, and one shot the other.
- Victim(s): 34-year-old man
- Status: No arrests
9:30 p.m.
- Location: Denver – 4700 block of North Washington Street
- Incident: Someone shot and wounded a man under unknown circumstances.
- Victim(s): 29-year-old man
- Status: No arrests
Saturday, June 4
12:30 a.m.
- Location: Colorado Springs – 2500 block of East Platte Avenue
- Incident: A security guard at a nightclub patted down a man trying to enter the business and found a gun. The security guard told the man he could not enter with the gun, and the man allegedly pulled the weapon, then raised it and fired a shot. The security guard shot and wounded the man.
- Victim(s): 21-year-old man
- Status: Prosecutors charged the man who was shot with three counts of felony menacing. He reached a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to one county of felony menacing. A judge sentenced him to three years in prison with two years of probation to follow.
1:15 a.m.
- Location: Denver – 1300 block of 15th Street
- Incident: Two men in a car opened fire into a nightclub while patrons crowded the sidewalk out front. Also on the sidewalk were two Denver police officers, who returned fire. No one was hit. The men fled, but investigators concluded that one of them was a patron who had been ejected from the business and identified him and the other suspect from scans of their identification as they entered the club.
- Victim(s): None
- Status: Prosecutors filed charges against two men, ages 21 and 22. Each faces seven counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of illegal discharge of a firearm, and seven counts of felony menacing. In addition, the 21-year-old also faces one count of possession of a weapon by a previous offender.
2 a.m.
- Location: Denver – 2100 block of North Grant Street
- Incident: Someone shot and wounded two people.
- Victim(s): 26-year-old woman; 41-year-old man
- Status: No arrests
7:37 p.m.
- Location: Denver – 600 block of North Wolf Street
- Incident: Someone shot and killed a man and left his body in a stolen Ford Explorer, which was not discovered for 12 days.
- Victim(s): Isaiah Morales, 30
- Status: Denver Police arrested an 30-year-old man, but prosecutors dismissed the case for unknown reasons, and a judge sealed the file.
9 p.m.
- Location: Colorado Springs – 1300 block of East Pikes Peak Avenue
- Incident: Someone shot and wounded a man at the Memorial Park skate park.
- Victim(s): 27-year-old man
- Status: No arrests
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