A Year of Grief: Denver's Tattoo Store Shootings

On December 27, 2021, a horrific tragedy struck Denver in a series of shootings that left five, including the killer, dead.

It began around 5 p.m., with the shooter entering Sol Tribe Tattoo & Piercing at 56 Broadway and killing the store's owner, Alicia Cardenas, and employee Alyssa Gunn-Maldonado; Gunn-Maldonado's husband, Jimmy Maldonado, was shot but survived. The gunman then made several more stops in Denver, killing Michael Swinyard at an apartment complex at 1200 Williams Street before heading to Lucky 13 Tattoo in Lakewood, where he killed employee Danny Scofield (known as Dano Blair). He then went to the Hyatt House in Belmar, where he shot and killed clerk Sarah Steck. The shooter was killed an hour after it all began by a shot from Lakewood police officer Ashley Ferris, who was shot and wounded in the encounter.

The killings left Denver's cultural and tattoo community under a cloud of despair. An Indigenous-rights advocate, muralist, activist and community organizer, Cardenas had spoken with Westword just a week before about how the Denver tattoo community had long been endeavoring to move away from a dark and violent past into a more accepting realm, which she had championed since the ’90s with her shop.

For months after the shooting, flowers, candles, incense and mourners, including Chicanx healers and Grupo Huitzilopochtli dancers, were seen outside the store. Since then, Cardenas has been immortalized in a documentary by the Chicano Murals of Colorado Project called These Storied Walls. Her beaming face can also be seen in a mural painted by her friends Jodie Herrera, Jaime Molina and Jher at 27th and Larimer streets, right next to a mural Cardenas painted in her notable style that emphasizes her Aztec roots. She is survived by her child and father; read her final interview here.

Gunn-Maldonado was a 35-year-old yoga instructor at Courageous Yoga and a doula who managed the piercing and jewelry section at Sol Tribe. She was an artist as well as a stepmother to her husband's young son, and her friends have described her as a healer who cultivated long-lasting, caring relationships.

Born and raised in Colorado, Scofield was a 38-year-old talented tattoo artist who was father to two daughters and one son. He had meant to be in Kansas City that night to surprise his mother for Christmas but had stayed home after falling ill. Scofield wrote in his Lucky 13 bio that tattooing has "given me not only artistic freedom but also a way to express my feelings. My youngest daughter loves art like I did when I was a kid so I do everything I can to pass things on to her. I also love the connection with people tattoos bring. I get to know my clients and build not only a relationship with them but also a safe space for them to be themselves."

Swinyard was 67 when he was killed in his apartment at the One Cheesman Place apartment building at 1201 North Williams Street. He worked in the construction industry and was an avid golfer with a close circle of friends.

Steck, the final victim, is remembered by her friends as a talented artist who ran a small business called Sarah Steck Alternative Designs. She had just graduated in spring 2021 from Metropolitan State University of Denver with a degree in communication design. In her business bio, the 28-year-old wrote that she wanted her designs to make her clients feel  “comfortable to be their true authentic selves.”