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Denver police have arrested Auviauntea Evans in connection to the murder of seventeen-year-old East High School football star Reese Grant-Cobb. Denver District Attorney Beth McCann charged Evans with first-degree murder in the July 1 stabbing of Grant-Cobb on the 500 block of East Colfax Avenue. Evans will make his first appearance at district court on September 14 at 8:30 a.m.
Although others were involved in the initial altercation with Grant-Cobb that culminated in his stabbing, the Denver District Attorney's Office has its eyes set solely on Evans.
"We do not intend [to file] charges against anybody else regarding this particular incident," says DA spokesman Ken Lane.
The altercation began in front of Bourbon Grill and eventually moved east behind Tom's Diner. An eyewitness told detectives that four to five men were involved in an assault on Grant-Cobb.
It is unclear how the assault began. A witness whose name is redacted in the arrest affidavit admitted to police detectives that he punched Grant-Cobb after Grant-Cobb spit on him. Other individuals told police that they hit Grant-Cobb, with one saying he did so after Grant-Cobb swung at him.
But what appears to have been a rough physical altercation turned deadly. According to someone involved in the altercation, Tey, as Evans is known, was the last person to hit Grant-Cobb before blood appeared on his shirt. The same person saw Evans go to the north end of the nearby McDonald's parking lot.
On July 3, Denver police located a knife with blood on it near the parking lot.
A woman who had been dating Evans for two months prior to the incident was in her car near the location of the killing, but did not witness the actual assault and murder. She told police detectives that a number of individuals, including Evans, came running around the corner toward her car. They got in, but she told Evans to get out. The others then told her that Evans had stabbed someone.
Grant-Cobb had graduated from high school weeks before he died. He was set to attend the University of Northern Colorado to study bio-medical engineering.
His friends and football coaches describe Grant-Cobb as a stellar athlete and an even greater person. "He was definitely a Renaissance man,” says Drew Gould, one of his football teammates.
Jasper Johnson, his offensive-line coach, laments what was lost. “He’s just one of those kids that actually wanted something. He wanted to do well. For this to happen to him, it’s overwhelming. He did not deserve this."