The number of homicides rose in Denver for the second year in a row in 2016, reaching a 10-year high of 56 people amid a sharp rise in domestic-violence deaths.
While the homicide numbers were higher, Denver police did see some success. The number of gang-related killings dropped significantly, and officers were able to solve more cases than the previous year.
The 11 domestic-violence deaths more than doubled the violent death toll for women in the city. Women are more likely than men to be killed by their partners, and in Denver those women died after being shot, stabbed and strangled by their husbands, boyfriends or exes, according to a Denver Post review of police and coroner records.
Experts said it is hard to predict why deaths from domestic violence spiked because overall incidents of those crimes have remained steady for years.
“It’s always been there,” said Abby Eschler, director of counseling and advocacy services at SafeHouse Denver. “Unfortunately, we had a number of women die last year. I hope it doesn’t repeat. But domestic violence is always going to be there until we change our culture.”
Denver’s increase in homicides last year reflected a similar rise in other large cities, although experts said it is too early to sound alarms about rising crime in the city or elsewhere.
“Two years is probably too soon to say we have a trend,” said Mary Dodge, a criminology professor at the University of Colorado Denver. “But I would call it concerning to see them go up.”
In 2016, 56 people were killed in shootings, stabbings and other forms of violence, according to data from the Denver Police Department and Denver coroner. Another six were killed in shootings by Denver police. In 2015, 50 people were killed in the city and another seven shot to death by police officers.
While the number of killings went up last year, the police department did a better job of solving the crimes.
The Denver Police Department has solved 38 of the 56 homicides reported in 2016, recording a clearance rate of 68 percent, according to data provided to The Post by police. In comparison, police had solved 28 of 50 homicide cases by the end of 2015, a 56 percent clearance rate.
Homicide rates have been in the national consciousness because of President Donald Trump, who has spoken about rising violence, especially in inner cities. Last week, Trump falsely told a group of sheriffs that the United States’ murder rate was at a 47-year high.
While murder rates among the nation’s 30 largest cities, which includes Denver, were projected to rise for the second year in a row in 2016, they are nowhere near historic highs set in the 1990s, according to an analysis conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School.
The Brennan Center’s analysis of preliminary crime data projected murder rates to rise by 13.1 percent in 2016, with Chicago alone accounting for nearly half of the increase.
But the report’s authors could not find a pattern among the nation’s 30 largest cities and wrote that increases most likely were due to unidentified local factors rather than national trends.
Murder in America’s largest cities
The table shows 2015 and 2016 (projected*) murder data for the 30 largest cities in the U.S., as reported by the Brennan Center for Justice. Data was unavailable for the following cities, which are not included in the table: Phoenix (6th largest), Jacksonville (12), Indianapolis (14), Columbus (15), Fort Worth (16), El Paso (20), Memphis (24) and Portland (26). Click the column headers in the table to sort the data.
Notes: *The Brennan Center for Justice report was released in September — 2016 murder numbers are projected. **The projected murder rate is per 100,000 people.
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
Denver’s 2016 homicides illustrate how rates can vary from year to year and an uptick can be attributed to all sorts of hard-to-predict variables, Dodge said.
Police can focus on one problem, only to have another appear.
In 2015, for example, the city’s homicide rate was driven by a gang war in the first half of the year. The shootings led to community outrage as nervous residents packed neighborhood meetings and Mayor Michael Hancock and police chief Robert White vowed during news conferences to fight the violence.
“Last year, the department as a whole targeted enforcement toward the key players who were causing the violence,” said Cmdr. Barb Archer, who leads the police department’s major crimes division.
Along with the increased enforcement, city leaders met with neighborhoods to talk about solutions and increased funding for programs aimed at reducing gang participation among teens.
“I think we made a lot of good deposits within our neighborhoods in 2015,” Archer said.
The effort to bring gang violence under control was effective. Nine gang-related homicides were reported in 2016, compared with 23 in 2015, according to police data.
Denver homicides 2015-16
Denver had 56 homicides in 2016, the highest total in 10 years, and up from 50 in 2015. Click map markers for details.
But no one could predict that domestic-violence deaths would rise in 2016. And the community outrage was muted.
Domestic violence tends to stir less public outrage than gun battles in neighborhoods, Archer said.
“You don’t know the parties, and you don’t feel targeted,” she said.
Gang violence plays on images of gun-toting, tough guys threatening neighborhoods, Eschler said.
“It’s easy to vilify that,” Eschler said. “The domestic-violence abuser is the guy in your neighborhood. It’s your co-worker. It’s your uncle.”
In Denver, police do a good job when it comes to arresting abusers and finding help for their victims, Eschler said.
Still, “Death is always a risk with domestic violence,” Eschler said.
Abuse doesn’t always start with physical violence, she said. It can involve control over finances, a social life and even car keys.
People shouldn’t wait to call police for help when they notice signs of abuse. By the time a woman has a split lip, “that means it’s already escalated to violence,” Eschler said.
People who notice early warning signs should make it clear to victims that they are safe sources for help. And they should call help lines to ask for advice on what to do.
In Denver, the 11 domestic-violence deaths included four murder-suicides, according to police data. The killers in those cases do not count toward the homicide totals.
All 11 domestic-violence victims were women. In total, 12 women died in the city’s 2016 homicides, compared with five in 2015.
The deaths involved a high-profile shooting in June at The Alliance Center on Wynkoop Street that sent hundreds of office workers fleeing into downtown streets. Cara Russell, the 52-year-old former mayor of Buena Vista, was shot and killed by her estranged husband, who killed himself in a stairwell as police arrived.
In Montbello, Maira Cordero-Cuesta, 26, and her mother, 45-year-old Raquel Cordero-Cuesta, were stabbed to death in July when Maira Cordero-Cuesta’s boyfriend allegedly violated a protective order and attacked them. He has been charged in both deaths.
And in October, Araceli Esparza Miranda, 23, was found strangled in the backseat of an SUV in Stapleton. Her ex-boyfriend, who had cut off an ankle monitor, has been charged in her death.
While domestic violence deaths don’t generate public outrage, Eschler said they should. The crimes impact people of all races and ethnicities and socio-economic levels. The typical victim is a 16- to 24-year-old woman so children often are left behind, she said.
“It’s everybody’s problem,” she said.
