DENVER — A Denver man faces multiple charges amid allegations he sexually assaulted two women in January at hotels the city was using to shelter an influx of migrants.
The incidents unfolded within an hour of each other on Jan. 2 at a Sleep Inn located at 5980 N. Tower Road, and a Comfort Suites at 5940 N. Tower Road.
At the time both were being used by the city to house thousands of migrants, almost all of them from Venezuela.
It is not clear how the man got past security in the two shelters.
“We have regular around-the-clock security,” said Jon Ewing, spokesman for Denver Human Services. “It's something you really can't live without – especially when you're dealing with this many people coming from this many volatile situations – for their safety, for staff safety, for everyone's safety.”
According to court records obtained by 9NEWS, a woman living at the Sleep Inn walked to a nearby convenience store to buy a soda. In the parking lot, she met a man who told her that he was living in the same shelter and asked if she had kids.
The woman said she did – and the man said he did, too. He asked if he could help her kids with a gift and led her to a room in the hotel, and when she looked inside she saw children’s toys so she believed his offer of help.
Inside the room, the man pulled a gun and raped her.
Less than an hour later, a woman reported that a man in the Comfort Suites approached her and began asking questions. He carried a clipboard, and she believed he was an employee.
The man grabbed her breasts and tried to kiss her – but she screamed and he fled.
Police detectives obtained a surveillance photo of the man, and the manager at a nearby complex identified him as a resident. At a nearby convenience store, a manager recognized him as a customer – and later was able to provide police an image of the vehicle the man used.
That led police to 32-year-old Tyler Ried. Castle Rock police arrested him March 7 on a Denver warrant.
In addition to the two assaults, he is suspected of exposing himself to two people at a gas station near the two hotels.
Prosecutors charged Ried with sexual assault-no consent, felony menacing, sexual contact-no consent, and four counts of indecent exposure.
Ried is free on $10,000 bail. He is scheduled to be in court April 16 for a preliminary hearing.
Police said there may have been other incidents involving Ried. Anyone who thinks they might have been a victim of Ried can call the Denver Police Sex Crimes Unit at 720-913-6040.
The vast majority of the migrants who arrived in Denver in the past year fled crime and unrest in their home country.
Ewing, the human services spokesman, said that made the assaults particularly troubling.
“These are people who fled instability,” Ewing said. “These are people who fled violence. And for them to come here and someone to do something unconscionable to them is just – it’s unacceptable.”
The number of migrants who need shelter in Denver has fallen to about 700, and neither of the hotels involved in the incidents is still being used as a shelter.
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