{"id":2798,"date":"2026-07-20T12:03:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T12:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=2798"},"modified":"2026-07-20T12:03:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T12:03:51","slug":"denver-sees-uptick-in-youth-violence-as-homicides-jump-with-6-kids-slain-so-far-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=2798","title":{"rendered":"Denver sees uptick in youth violence as homicides jump with 6 kids slain so far this year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nearly one in six people shot or killed in Denver during the first half of the year were children, reversing gains in youth safety the city experienced over the last two years.<\/p>\n

Read more Two major music fests claimed the same weekend. Does that serve Denver music fans?<\/a><\/p>\n

The uptick in youth violence comes amid a jump in homicides across the city, with 26 homicides in the first six months of 2026 compared to 18 at this point in 2025, when the city saw the third-lowest number of annual homicides on record since 1990.<\/p>\n

Still, both youth violence and overall homicides remain well below levels the city experienced when crime spiked during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, and police data shows other categories of reported crime \u2014 including property crime, auto theft and burglary \u2014 are down when compared to this point in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery crime category is down with the exception of homicides, which is drastically up when compared to last year but down compared to the three-year average,\u201d Chief Ron Thomas said. \u201cObviously, we are concerned about that. \u2026One thing we are noticing is the age of suspects and victims being younger in many instances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six children were killed in Denver during the first half of the year and 11 more were wounded in shootings. In 2025, no children had been killed by July 1 and just two were wounded in shootings, according to police data obtained by The Denver Post through open records requests.<\/p>\n

In 2022, by contrast, there had been almost twice as many homicides by the midpoint of the year, with 50 people killed in Denver by July 1, including 14 children. Another 23 children were wounded in shootings, according to police data.<\/p>\n

Two of the children killed this year are suspected victims of child abuse, including 2-month-old Adhara Gomez-Bastardo, who died May 25 in the 1600 block of South Albion Street. Her death is being investigated as a homicide due to traumatic injuries, but no one has yet been charged, and officials are still determining the cause of death, Major Crimes Division Cmdr. Matt Clark said.<\/p>\n

Also slain was 2-year-old Valkyrie Erickson, who died Jan. 17. Her mother and her mother\u2019s boyfriend have been charged in connection with her death. The other youth killed this year were teenagers ranging from 14 to 17 years old, including a 14-year-old boy shot to death inside the Montbello Recreation Center.<\/p>\n

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Overall, the city saw 59 non-fatal shootings with 68 victims through June, compared to 60 shootings with 69 victims in the first six months of 2025, police data shows.<\/p>\n

Thomas said personal disputes continue to drive violence in Denver, with a \u201clittle bit of a gang nexus\u201d within the youth violence, though he noted that the gangs police are seeing now tend to be cliques that are more organized around friendships than traditional gang allegiances or geographic territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not like they are involved in defending territory or dealing drugs,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cA lot of these conflicts just emanate over battles back and forth online, sometimes over significant others, and then because of the online dispute, they choose to meet somewhere and shoot at each other. It begins as something less than a shooting but ultimately evolves to a shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged parents to ensure their children do not carry guns and said the police department will continue to work with community partners to head off such youth violence.<\/p>\n

Read more 1 dead, 3 injured in two Denver double shootings<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jonathan McMillan, the former head of Denver\u2019s Office of Youth Violence Prevention, said the increase in young victims is, so far, a \u201cminor spike.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely concerning, but we are nowhere near where we were pre-COVID and immediately after COVID,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there is a need for widespread alarm, but I do believe we could get ahead of this now if the city is willing to invest in the violence prevention strategies implemented back in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city focused heavily on youth violence prevention when killings spiked several years ago, but the effort has seen budget cuts and disorganization under Mayor Mike Johnston, McMillan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the new administration, there has been a lack of buy-in, and if I\u2019m being frank, a bit of disorganization around the comprehensive strategy that I truly believe contributed \u2014 maybe was not the sole reason, but contributed \u2014 to the historic decline in homicides and violence last year,\u201d McMillan said. \u201cWe are looking at the lag effect of policies and programs and funding that went into youth violence and gun violence prevention in 2020 and 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas pushed back on that stance, calling it \u201ca little bit of a mischaracterization\u201d and defending the city\u2019s ongoing prevention efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a city perspective, the focus remains,\u201d he said. \u201cI think one challenge is that funding is less and less available, both in the city, state and certainly at the federal level.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the uptick in young victims, Denver also saw a spate of violence along a stretch of East Hampden Avenue on the far southeast side of the city near the Cherry Creek Reservoir.<\/p>\n

The violence along the corridor was a series of unrelated incidents, Clark said.<\/p>\n

Four people were killed and another three shot along an about 1.5-mile stretch of the road in four incidents so far this year, including a January quadruple shooting in which a 16-year-old boy and a 26-year-old man were killed when a party celebrating the capture of Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro devolved into gunfire.<\/p>\n

A double shooting in March in the 8400 block of East Hamden Avenue that killed 59-year-old Patricia Daniel and wounded a 37-year-old woman was an act of family violence inside an apartment, Clark said. And in a separate incident, 47-year-old Neal Jones was beaten to death outside a nightclub in the 9700 block of East Hampden Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some entertainment establishments in that area that attract crowds and that have late-night hours where they let out, and there is also a very large apartment complex over there that is sort of a low-income, underserved community that lives in that area,\u201d Thomas said of the corridor.<\/p>\n

The police department has increased its patrols in the dense neighborhood and routinely conducts outreach to residents in the large apartment complex, Thomas said.<\/p>\n

Read more Today in History: July 20, World War I draft lottery begins<\/a><\/p>\n

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Nearly one in six people shot or killed in Denver during the first half of the year were children, reversing gains in youth safety the city experienced over the last two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-public-safety","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nDenver sees uptick in youth violence as homicides jump with 6 kids slain so far this year - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=2798\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Denver sees uptick in youth violence as homicides jump with 6 kids slain so far this year - 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