WATCH: Video of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock as he talks about the fatal shootings
Four people were killed and one wounded in four Denver shootings over a roughly 24-hour span between early Sunday and Monday morning amid growing tensions between rival gangs.
Police Chief Robert White said Monday that three of the four killings were gang-related, meaning that eight of the 12 homicides so far this year involved gangs. That’s a sharp increase over the eight homicides — two of them gang-related — during the same period last year.
The killings came less than two weeks after police touted their initiatives to reduce gang violence in the city, including closed-door meetings with gang members and extensive intervention programs.
“We need to be much more aggressive in fighting some of the gang activity we are seeing,” White said at a news conference Monday.
The family of a 27-year-old Colorado Springs man killed in one of the gang-related shootings said he was visiting Denver to attend a baby shower when he was killed. Authorities identified him as Jeffrey Turner Starks.
The weekend violence also included the gang-related double fatal shooting early Sunday of Tyrael Lamar Adams, 28, and Deanthony Clyde Williams, 30, who were gunned down at an apartment complex in the city’s Lowry neighborhood.
Police say they are working to determine if the three gang-related killings are connected. A fourth shooting of a man killed in the 3400 block of Race Street just after midnight on Monday was not believed to be gang-related.
The Rev. Leon Kelly, who has been working in the city for decades battling gang violence, said it’s “unfortunate” that it has taken deaths for the community to realize the seriousness of the situation.
“There are those of us who always keep our thumbs on the pulse of things going on in the city,” he said. “What’s happening out in east Denver right now — in Park Hill, Montbello, the Five Points area — has a strong pulse.”
The Denver Post analyzed police data last month showing a surge in gang-related homicides and aggravated assaults in January and February compared with the same period last year. Updated statistics through Monday were not immediately available.
Between January and March 2014, there were eight homicides in Denver. So far this year there have been 12, according to data gathered by The Post.
“I feel very confident we are putting the tools together,” White said Monday, adding that police will “close these cases.”
Mayor Michael Hancock urged residents to cooperate with investigators, reiterating how police say reluctant witnesses have hampered their ability to solve slayings.
“If you hear something, see something — say something,” Hancock said at the news conference. “This sort of activity in our city is simply unacceptable.”
Hancock, flanked by members of the City Council, offered harsh words for those involved in perpetrating the violence, and he called for collaboration.
“If you disrupt peace in our city, and you perpetrate violence like this in our city, we will find you and we will hold you accountable,” he said.
Officials say they believe the flare-up in violence might have been sparked by the slaying of Kevie Durham, 24, last November at a bar near Sports Authority Field.
Durham, a popular Denver rapper who went by the moniker KL Tha General, was slain at The Beach after performing there. Police said several others were injured in the shooting.
White and other city officials attended a tense, standing-room-only meeting Monday night with Kelly, community members and relatives of Starks, one of the shooting victims.
“There is too much violence in our community tonight,” said police District 2 Cmdr. Mike Calo. “We are on edge waiting for the next one.”
The meeting at the District 2 police station was organized by Denver activist Jeff Fard, known as Brother Jeff.
Older members of the Crips and Bloods spoke at the meeting about how tired they are of the violence, and gang members and activists disagreed about who was responsible. Some blamed teenagers being influenced by older gang members. Everyone agreed that something needed to be done, whether it involves jobs, conversations or changes in policing.
“What does it take for us as a community to stand up and say, ‘No more’?” said Keith Dorsey, a community activist.
One gang member who spoke during the meeting accused Kelly of furthering the violent clashes between the Bloods and Crips through recent comments to The Denver Post.
Kelly defended his remarks, and he later told The Post: “The reality of it is that’s how it is.”
Some community members expressed concern about what might happen this summer, when gang violence has often flared.
“It’s extremely hot right now,” Deputy Police Chief David Quiñones said of east Denver.
He said police are very data-driven, and this weekend’s violence was a surprise.
“We try to predict,” he said. “Nobody could predict what happened” this weekend.
Starks was shot about 9:45 p.m. Sunday in the 3200 block of Pontiac Street. The Rev. Derone Armstrong said Starks was his nephew and that the family was in shock.
“He wasn’t doing anything. He was at a baby shower,” Armstrong said. “All we know is he was in a house and someone came and started shooting.”
He said his nephew had run-ins with the law and at one point was in a gang, but he had turned his life around in the past three or four years.
“People are talking a lot about the four deaths that have taken place in the 24-hour period, but the reality is there have been multiple shootings occurring almost every night in northeast Denver,” Fard said.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
The shootings
• Two men — Tyrael Lamar Adams, 28, and Deanthony Clyde Williams, 30— were shot and killed at an apartment complex in the city’s Lowry neighborhood in the 200 block of South Monaco Parkway. The shooting happened at about 12:40 a.m. Sunday.
• Jeffrey Turner Starks, 27, of Colorado Springs, was shot about 9:45 p.m. Sunday in the 3200 block of Pontiac Street.
• A man was shot and killed in the 3400 block of Race Street just after midnight Monday. Police say they do not believe the shooting was gang-related.
• One person was shot and wounded in the 1900 block of South Depew Street. Police reported the shooting at about 4 a.m. Monday and said the victim is expected to survive.
