AURORA, Colo. — A gun recovered during a search of a backpack during a youth camp in Boulder is linked to nine cases from 2022, including two homicides – one in Denver and one in Aurora.
A 70-page arrest affidavit from the Aurora Police Department details how Lu Reh, 22, was linked to the weapon and the homicides that occurred weeks apart in 2022.
Reh is among multiple people charged in the July 2022 fatal shooting of Ma Kaing in Denver. The community activist was struck and killed by a stray bullet on July 15, 2022, in the 1300 block of North Xenia Street in Denver. Reh was arrested in connection with her death in August 2022.
> The video above aired May 17: Man charged in death of Denver community activist arrested in separate homicide
This month, Aurora Police announced he had been arrested in a homicide that occurred May 30, 2022, near the intersection of East 16th Avenue and Alton Street. Around 4:15 p.m., Denver Police responded to the area and found the victim, 44-year-old Ricardo Ryans, in an alley between the 1600 blocks of Willow and Xanthia streets.
He had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene. Through the investigation, it was determined that Ryans had been shot at East 16th Avenue and Alton Street in Aurora, where investigators recovered five 9mm shell casings.
Police later got a call about a black SUV with bullet holes in it near East 14th Avenue and Niagara Street. Based on witness statements, investigators found a woman who was seen leaving that vehicle. She told investigators she picked up Ryans in Aurora to run an errand. As they were headed home, she said, they encountered a white sedan driving slowly with its hazard lights on near East 16th Avenue and Alton Street.
The woman told police she tried to drive around the sedan, and as she did, an unknown man appeared and fired multiple rounds into the passenger side of her vehicle.
The woman told investigators she sped away and stopped in the alley between Willow and Xanthia streets to check on Ryans. At that time, she said, Ryans got out and collapsed on the ground.
She said she drove to the motel where she was staying and parked the car two blocks away at East 14th Avenue and Niagara Street. In a follow-up interview months after the shooting, she indicated that the gunman was an Asian man with a cross tattoo under one of his eyes.
Investigators searched multiple databases and came up with a photo of Reh, who they noted matched the description. He had multiple prior arrests for firearms possession and aggravated assault.
Another woman who witnessed the shooting came forward and said that just before the shooting, a man looked right at her and "smiled," the affidavit says. Moments later, she said, the man pulled out a gun and fired into a black SUV.
She described the man as being Asian and said he was tall and thin, and was wearing a black sweater with a hood over a ballcap. She also saw "bangs" under the brim of his hat. The woman said she was close enough to the man "where she could see him smile and laugh," the affidavit says. She said she had never seen the man before.
Ballistics tests on the casings recovered at the fatal shooting scene in Aurora came back as matches to eight other crime scenes in Denver and Aurora between May and July 2022.
They included the following:
- May 23: Shots fired in the area of 8712 Richtoffen Place in Denver where "shot spotter" technology picked up 16 gunshots
- June 5: A report of 10 to 12 people firing guns near 1601 Alton St. in Aurora
- June 26: A report of shots fired near 1908 Beeler St. in Aurora
- July 2: A report of shots fired where "shot spotter" technology picked up 12 gunshots in the area of 1200 Xenia St. in Denver
- July 2: Shots fired into two residences in Aurora. The shootings were reported at 14656 E. 23rd Ave. and 2273 Eagle St.
- July 3: A report of shots fired in the area of 1391 Akron St. in Aurora
- July 9: A man was shot in the stomach in the area of 9201 E. Colfax Ave. in Aurora
- July 14: A report of shots fired in the area of 8857 E. 13th Ave. where "shot spotter" technology picked up 12 rounds of gunfire
- July 15: Ma Kaing was killed by a stray bullet in the 1200 block of Xenia Street. She was struck by gunfire from the nearby New Freedom Park. Five firearms were used in the shooting, including one linked to all the prior incidents.
In June 2023, investigators learned the firearm linked to all the incidents above had been recovered in Boulder in August 2022. According to the affidavit, bags from a youth group based out of Aurora were being searched when the weapon was found in one of them.
It was taken by a group leader and turned over to authorities after none of the youths' parents claimed ownership of the weapon. Investigators could not get a clear answer about where the gun came from, only that it had been passed around the youth group. One of them gave the name of a person they said provided the gun, but that person denied any knowledge of it, the affidavit says.
In April, the woman who had been driving the vehicle when Ryans was killed agreed to speak with investigators again. She provided additional details that matched the evidence collected, the affidavit says.
When asked why she wanted to cooperate after so long, she said that her father was murdered in 2008 and that his killing remains unsolved. She said she wanted to provide Ryans' family with closure. She participated in a photo lineup and "instantly" picked out Reh as Ryans' killer and said she was "confident" he was the man responsible.
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