DENVER — The Denver Police Department (DPD) is investigating a shooting in the area of 17th and Blake streets in LoDo that happened early Sunday morning. This is at least the third shooting police have responded to in the area in the last three weeks.
According to DPD, one victim was transported to a local hospital, but the severity of their injuries is unknown. Police say they are still investigating, and officers are working to identify a suspect.
This latest shooting followed two others in the same area since the beginning of August. Last week, police arrested a 16-year-old in connection to a shooting near the 16th Street Mall. The shooting happened Tuesday, Aug. 13, around rush hour.
A driver in the area caught the moment when about a dozen shots were fired, injuring three people, two of them bystanders. All three survived.
A little over a week earlier on Aug. 3, a man was shot on 19th Street after pointing a gun at officers. In recently released body camera video of the incident, officers are seen approaching the man, who appears to be holding a gun. One of the officers fired a single round, hitting the man in the arm. He's since been released from the hospital.
Denver Police said there was another shooting around the same time that morning in the area of 19th and Market streets in LoDo.
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said during a news conference there was evidence of a "volley of gunshots" in the parking lot in addition to the officer-involved shooting.
Thomas said one person was injured in that parking lot shooting, who then drove themself to the 7/11 near the intersection of Downing and Lawrence streets. Thomas said a second person in the car was injured when the vehicle crashed.
These shootings have peppered an area of Denver that's been the focus of revitalization and safety efforts by Mayor Mike Johnston and Thomas.
Ongoing construction of the 16th Street Mall is trying to revamp and area that struggled to bounce back after the pandemic. At the same time, more Denver police officers have been added to the area.
In July, DPD began closing several blocks of LoDo on weekend evenings to rideshare drivers to try and stop people from congregating outside bars and getting in fights. In partnership with Uber and Lyft, DPD created designated rideshare pickup locations in Denver’s LoDo and Ballpark areas.
Kourtny Garrett, the president and CEO of Downtown Denver Partnership (DDP), told 9NEWS last week that public safety incidents like this make them stop and think.
"It gives us a tremendous amount of pause and it is hard. It is hard for our city, no matter where these incidents occur, to really ensure people feel safe and want to come back," Garrett said. “A clean and safe environment is absolutely fundamental for downtown.”