Denver police are investigating three apparently unrelated fatal shootings that took place over a roughly nine-hour span between Thursday night and Friday morning.
Police said in a release Friday they are still working on developing suspect information.
Officers responded to the first shooting at about 6:20 p.m. Thursday near West Colorado Avenue and South Meade Street in the Mar Lee neighborhood. A man taken from the scene to a hospital was later pronounced dead.
Officers responded to a second incident at about 1:50 a.m. Friday in the 12400 block of East Albrook Drive in Montbello. Police said they located two victims who were taken to the hospital. A woman was pronounced dead and a man was in critical condition but expected to survive.
At about 3 a.m., officers got a call about a third incident. Police responded to East 54th Avenue and Xenia Street in Stapleton in response to calls of shots fired. A juvenile man was found and transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Denver police department's Twitter account listed a fourth shooting investigation near the 3200 block of Julian St. at about 2:27 a.m. Police said one victim was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds and said the incident was a burglary call.
The victim "appeared to be a bystander," according to the department's Twitter account. They had no suspect information at the time.
Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen said in the release Friday that "violence has no place in our community."
"We are working to determine why these shootings occurred to determine what, as a community, we can do to prevent such violence from occurring," Pazen said.
In June, Pazen joined Aurora Police Cheif Nick Metz and District Attorney Beth McCann in announcing a regional task force aimed at combatting gun violence. The city marked the highest murder rate in 14 years in 2018.
The department said in June they appeared to be on track to surpass the number of firearms seized in the previous year. The department said it seized 692 firearms between January 1 and June 11, compared to 686 during the same time span in 2018.
Police said there have been 37 murder cases in Denver this year as of Friday, which is slightly less than the 46 murder cases through the same time period in 2018.
Denver Police encrypted its signal at the end of July, prompting protest from the press and others who use the scanners to keep themselves updated on the department's activity. Concerns over transparency were raised by reporters who noted all three shootings contained little information.
Denver police are asking for the public's help for information on the three homicides this week. They're asking anyone with information to call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867).
