Gangs

Dead Orchids will bring the hi-dive to life with eerie sound

Twenty fabled moments in Denver music, #7: DJ Quik show at Mammoth turns into melee

Backbeat is continuing to count down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today: We take a look back at the time DJ Quik's early '90s show at Mammoth Events Center, which turned into a bit of a melee. "But still my story ain't over cause I got one more to tell/And the people of ... More >>

Celena Hollis murder: Possible plea deal with suspect Rollin Oliver in death of Denver cop?

A plea deal in the case of Rollin Oliver, the 22-year-old charged with murder in the shooting death of Denver police officer Celena Hollis last June, may be in the works, according to a court document. "There is a possible disposition in this matter," notes the register of actions, which is a summ ... More >>

Reader: If there was a gang problem in Boulder or Littleton, funding wouldn't be a problem

Last week, Joel Warner wrote about the financial difficulties being experienced by a Montbello anti-gang initiative spearheaded by activist Terrance Roberts -- problems so severe that the program may have to close. One reader believes that demographics have everything to do with Roberts' troubles.

Terrance Roberts' anti-gang initiative, Prodigal Son, faces potential shutdown

Terrance Roberts is one of Denver's great comeback stories. A one-time shot-caller in the Park Hill Bloods, Roberts turned his life around and founded the Prodigal Son Initiative, an anti-gang youth program in northeast Park Hill. When a 2008 gang-related arson attack destroyed the Holly Square Shop ... More >>

Columbine to Newtown: A tragic list of school shootings since 1999

The senseless massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, which took the lives of twenty children, including Olivia Engel, seen here, plus seven adults, instantly stirs terrible memories of the 1999 attack on Columbine High School. On the tenth anniversary of that tragedy, we assembled a horrific roster of sc ... More >>

James Holmes case: Cinemark lawsuits amend references to prior gang shooting at Century 16

The Aurora theater shootings have spawned a number of lawsuits against Cinemark, owner of the Century 16, where James Holmes allegedly killed twelve people and wounded 58. But two of the suits were subsequently amended to remove direct references to prior gang shootings at the theater -- a rationale ... More >>

Rollin Oliver: Read probable cause statement of Officer Celena Hollis's accused killer

Update: We've obtained the probable cause statement in Denver Police Officer Celena Hollis's death. See it below earlier coverage. Original post, 6:59 p.m. September 13: Rollin Oliver, accused of murdering Denver Policewoman Celena Hollis, admitted to officers that he fired at least two shots on Ju ... More >>

Holly Square Shopping Center: From arson to basketball courts, playgrounds

In May 2008, Crips gang members burned down the Holly Square Shopping Center in northeast Park Hill. More than four years later, the scorched earth is experiencing a rebirth. On Saturday, The Prodigal Son Initiative, a youth organization headquartered across the street, is leading a clean-up effort ... More >>

Photos: East Side Peace March draws mayor, police chief, ex-gang members

Between the shooting of Denver police officer Celena Hollis and the death of twelve people at the Aurora theater massacre, it's been a particularly violent summer locally -- a fact that underscored an annual peace march over the weekend. Denver officials and community groups banded together Saturday ... More >>

Reader: It's a welcome change to see investigative journalism alive and well

Deonte Crews, alleged gang member, busted for firing into group, hitting woman in back

Deonte Crews, an eighteen-year-old "self-admitted" gang member, has been arrested and charged with attempted murder for shooting into a group of people standing in a yard at 4490 North Dillon Street in Montbello on July 12. A probable cause statement on view below says Crews is a member of the Blood ... More >>

Gang violence by the numbers: Murders up, aggravated assaults down

This week's cover story, "Flash Point," details Denver's response to what many perceive as a recent rise in gang violence. According to the most up-to-date statistics from the Denver Police Department, six murders were linked to gang activity between January and May of this year. That's up from five ... More >>

Peter Black on growing up around music, So What! and the importance of community

See Also: Tonight: Peter Black at the Meadowlark Peter Black (aka Peter Gurule) first gained renown as a DJ as part of the long-running and legendary club night, So What! Since then, he's made a name for himself not just as a skilled DJ in a very real sense of the term but as someone who has taken ... More >>

Gang-related deaths are on the rise in Denver

Also read: Denver's plan to cool down gang violence

Denver's plan to cool down gang violence

Also read: Gang-related deaths are on the rise in Denver

Rollin Oliver: First-degree murder/extreme indifference charge in Celena Hollis murder (12)

Update: Rollin Oliver, 21, was born on Christmas Day -- but what he just received from the Denver District Attorney's Office can't be considered an early gift. He's now been formally charged with first-degree murder/extreme indifference in the City Park slaying of Denver police officer Celena Holli ... More >>

Celena Hollis: Sunday fundraiser to benefit her daughter, twelve

In the days since Denver police officer Celena Hollis was shot and killed while breaking up a fight during City Park Jazz, the DPD and the community have gathered together for an outpouring of local support. On Sunday, the day after Hollis's public funeral, state representative Angela Williams and c ... More >>

Celena Hollis murder: Michael Hancock says gang speculation a distraction

Since Denver cop Celena Hollis was shot and killed over the weekend, there has been a lot of speculation concerning the possible gang-affiliation of the suspect -- but according to Mayor Michael Hancock, reporters are asking the wrong questions. In this case, the gang question, Hancock told Westword ... More >>

Rollin Oliver, busted in Denver cop Celena Hollis's murder, reportedly a gang member (12)

Update: More information is emerging about Rollin Oliver, the man arrested following the fatal shooting of Denver Police officer Celena Hollis after a jazz event at City Park on Sunday night -- including increasingly solid reports establishing his gang affiliation. Not that this link offers much com ... More >>

Justin O'Donnell slaying: Denzel Richardson, Marquise Davis charged with murder one (3, 4)

The Denver District Attorney's Office has formally charged Denzel Richardson and Marquise Davis in the shocking, daylight gundown of four people in Five Points, with Justin O'Donnell and Deon Rudd dying from their wounds. At this point, though, DA's office reps are keeping the info that led to the ... More >>

Gang problems escalating in schools and neighborhoods, says activist

Denver Police haven't confirmed that the shockingly public slayings of Justin O'Donnell and Deon Rudd in northeast Denver on Friday were gang-related. But Reverend Leon Kelly, the veteran activist behind Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives, sees gang connections in this terrible act and many others th ... More >>

Justin O'Donnell murder: Denver police justify leaving body uncovered for hours (3, 4)

Update: The shooting on Friday that killed Justin O'Donnell and Deon Rudd stirred controversy in part because the former's body was left in view of a large throng for hours. Denver Police spokesman Detective John White stresses that no disrespect was intended -- and he hints that the investigative w ... More >>

Victim in Montbello quadruple shooting still not identified five days later (49)

On May 9, four people were shot in Montbello, with one of them subsequently dying. It was a shocking incident, but like many crimes thought to be gang-related, it hasn't gotten much media attention. And five days later, the victim who died in the case still hasn't been identified by Denver authorit ... More >>

Gang violence escalating and not getting enough attention, activist says

Last week, when we noted that the number of Denver homicides during the first quarter of 2012 was up from 2010 and 2011. But the nine Denver victims through the end of last month hardly encompass all the violence that's gone on in these parts of late -- including the death of Manuel Munoz, which esc ... More >>

Stacy Peralta: "When parents tell me their kids are skateboarders, I tell them, sorry, your kids are democrats."

Stacy Peralta -- legendary professional skateboarder, founder of the Powell Peralta skateboard company, documentary filmmaker and commercial advertising mogul -- visited the Auraria campus yesterday to speak with students on the art of being creative. "When kids tell me their kids are skateboarder ... More >>

Anshutz Foundation pledge may finally lift Holly Square up from the ashes

Early on May 18, 2008, a car full of Crips drove into Park Hill. They were were young gangbangers who'd just beefed with some Bloods in LoDo, and they were still spoiling for a fight: Michael Asberry, co-founder of the Denver Crips, had been shot and killed in Aurora just a few hours before. Now it ... More >>

Laurents's updated West Side Story comes to Denver

Gang's All Here: I'm just a juggalo, everywhere I go, the FBI knows the part I'm playing

Courtesy of the FBI​If you consider the Sharks and the Jets to be gangs in the same way the Bloods and the Crips fit that selective bill, you might also be willing to consider juggalos one. The FBI does, at least: According to the bureau's most recent National Gang Threat Assessment, the face- ... More >>

Janice Hahn: Racist clip attacking CA candidate features Greeley gangsta Christian Hanson

Video below.​One of the most astonishingly racist and sexist campaign videos in recent memory attacks Janice Hahn, who's running for U.S. Representative in California; she'll face Tea Party fave Chris Huey in a special election on July 12. And as it turns out, the clip, on view below, has a lo ... More >>

Rosendo "Sir Kong" Santa Cruz, nicknamed crew indicted in Weld County gang roundup

Big pics below.​The Colorado Organized Crime Control Act (COCCA) hadn't been used in Weld County for a gang-related case until last week, when five men were indicted by a grand jury on a multitude of charges, including assault, witness intimidation and racketeering. As a bonus, all of them, a ... More >>

Raped and extorted by a prison gang, Scott Howard was called a "drama queen" by corrections officials

Brian Hicks stands trial for allegedly ordering Willie Clark, another man to murder a witness

Brian Hicks.​ Today, reputed gang leader Brian Hicks stands trial in Denver for the murder of a witness named Kalonniann Clark. Prosecutors say Hicks ordered the killing while he was in jail on drug charges in 2006 in order to stop Clark from testifying that he'd tried to shoot her a year earl ... More >>

Christopher Hanson: Greeley gang member guilty of kidnapping, sex assault, hiring hit man

Larger photo below.​In June, we told you about Christopher Hanson, a Greeley gang member suspected of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman -- and then trying to hire someone to kill her. Last night, a Weld County jury found him guilty on six counts for crimes dating back to December of ... More >>

ICE arrests focus on criminal aliens: 78 busts include man convicted of making terrorist threat

​These days, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, emphasizes that it's targeting criminal aliens, not otherwise law-abiding citizens who lack documentation authorizing their U.S. residency. And that's the theme of ICE's latest Colorado busts. Of the 78 people rounded up fr ... More >>

Letters: Readers give the LoDown on LoDo

Gang attack in Colorado Springs?: 10-15 men in gold Cadillacs bum-rush house, stab 44-year-old

Near the crime scene.​Early Sunday morning in Colorado Springs, between ten and fifteen men jumped out of four cars (including two gold Cadillacs), invaded a home and stabbed the occupant, a 44-year-old man. It's a scenario that screams "gang violence" -- and while the Colorado Springs Police ... More >>

Crips burned down the Holly in Bloods territory, but can peace emerge from the ashes in northeast Park Hill?

Holly Square, up from the ashes: More memories of trials & triumphs in Park Hill

Anthony CameraTerrance Roberts.​In this week's feature, "Crips Burned Down the Holly in Bloods Territory, But Can Peace Emerge from the Ashes in Northeast Park Hill?," we recount the story of the Holly Square shopping center, burned to the ground in a 2008 gang attack and now poised for rehabi ... More >>

Vicente Solorzano: Suspect in shooting last night previously picked up in immigration raid

Vicente Solorzano.​If the mug shot of Vicente Solorzano, twenty, who's wanted in a non-fatal shooting in Aurora on Monday night, looks familiar, it should. The same shot ran earlier this year in relation to a post about Project Big Freeze, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid targeting ... More >>

Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Nobel Prize winner, inspires Denver one community at a time

Rigoberta Menchú Tum.​Rigoberta Menchú Tum, winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, visited two at-risk Denver communities yesterday, not to preach peace but to preach "harmony." For Menchú Tum and Mayan spiritual teachers Don Pedro Yac Noj and Doña Faviana Cochoy Alva, who are traveling wi ... More >>

Alan Sudduth learned young that you never snitch -- but now, only the truth can set him free

King Kahn discusses spending the night in jail and discovering garage rock and gospel

In the hunt for Darrent Williams's killer, the cops went on the offensive early

Guerilla Garden artist goes ape when Gangland tags his art

When the Guerilla Garden brand gets labeled as a gang sign, its creator goes ape. With good reason.

Souvenirs of South Park

The Transformers

They created Denver's gang life. A generation later, can they break free?

Marked for Death

Trapped in a prison race war, Tony Francis had three choices: kill, snitch or run. He found another way out.

Dealing With the Devil

On judgment day for Danny Martinez, there are no angels for witnesses.

Blood Brothers

Sal Martinez says he's no snitch. But rumors have a long life on the street.