The document confirms that the shooting incident occurred inside the facility's bus terminal, while the bust took place at a popular nearby park, where an extended magazine for Archuleta's 9 mm Glock 19 could be seen hanging out of his pocket.
At 6:42 p.m. on Saturday, according to the statement, uniformed DPD officers assigned to work at Union Station reported hearing shots fired in Union Station's underground bus terminal. Officers rushed to the scene, where they found an unidentified male victim with an apparent gunshot wound to the abdomen near one of the bus gates; he was transported to Denver Health. The officers also located a 9mm cartridge casing.
Moments later, RTD security officers pulled up video footage of the shooting and the events leading up to it; it reportedly shows the victim standing in the terminal near two other males. The first one, characterized as the suspect, is described as a white or Hispanic male wearing red pants, a black hoodie with the hood up, a red cap and a black mask. The second, unmasked person is dubbed "a white male wearing red pants and a black Denver Nuggets hoodie."
In the video, the statement notes, the victim can be seen walking slowly with his hands in or near his pocket when the suspect produces a semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine and fires it at the victim, who immediately falls to the ground. The suspect subsequently runs away while the third person slowly makes his exit.
The description of the suspect and the "other involved party" were quickly shared with DPD personnel from District 6, and at 7:21 p.m., officers spotted Archuleta in Confluence Park, at 2250 15th Street. The text stresses that he was "wearing the same clothing seen on the surveillance video as the suspect," and the extended magazine was "hanging out of his hoodie pocket." Deeper inside that pocket was a 9 mm Glock 19.
Authorities haven't released Archuleta's booking photo "due to investigative purposes," and he has not yet been formally charged by the Denver District Attorney's Office.
Click to read the Dominico Archuleta probable-cause statement. Continue for our previous coverage.
One view from the 1700 block of Chestnut Place.
Google Maps
The weekend had hardly been uneventful before this shooting. At 2:25 a.m. on March 18, the DPD's Twitter account noted that two people had been shot on the 8000 block of East Montview Boulevard, and a subsequent update confirmed that one of the victims had died at the scene. Additional tweets included a 10:02 p.m. March 19 alert about a shooting on the 3300 block of York Street that injured an adult female; a 6:30 a.m. March 20 item about a shooting on the 1600 block of South Zenobia Street that resulted in a male victim being transported to the hospital; and a 9:37 p.m. March 20 bulletin in regard to a stabbing on the 1700 block of West Mosier Place that also sent a male victim to the hospital.
Still, the report that got the most attention was tweeted at 7:02 p.m. on March 19: Denver officers were "investigating a shooting in the 1700 block of Chestnut Place. One person is being transported to the hospital with unknown extent of injuries." An update added: "The victim is an adult male and is in stable condition. Two males have been taken into custody near 20th and Little Raven and are being held for investigation of the shooting."
At 10:02 a.m. on March 20, the DPD issued a release announcing that two males had been "arrested in connection with the shooting that occurred yesterday afternoon near the 1700 block of Chestnut Place" and were "being held for investigation of aggravated assault." Both were identified and their birthdates were included — typically indications that investigators are confident the busts will stick. But at 2:21 p.m., a follow-up release acknowledged that one of the suspects, an eighteen-year-old, "is not facing any charges for the shooting and was released from custody," leaving only 21-year-old Dominico Archuleta in custody.
Final charges against Archuleta are expected to be determined by the Denver District Attorney's Office; according to CBS4, Denver Deputy District Attorney Michael Bailey told a judge that Archuleta had shot the victim in the abdomen using an untraceable "ghost gun."
Crime in the Union Station neighborhood — a DPD definition that stretches for blocks around the station itself — made headlines in early December 2021 following outcry from the union representing RTD employees, who were particularly concerned about the bus terminal area. That concern was subsequently echoed by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, who called for tougher enforcement actions in the area. These efforts culminated in a Denver police sweep on February 23 during which 43 people were busted, ten for felonies. At the time, the DPD revealed that more than 500 arrests had taken place in the Union Station neighborhood since January 1.
Statistics accessible via the Denver Crime Map show that the number of arrests in the neighborhood has remained high since then. From February 24, the day after the sweep, to March 19, the most recent date for which stats are available, the Union Station neighborhood as a whole registered 226 offenses, for a crime density of 514.81 per square mile — by far the most for any Denver neighborhood during that period.
Of the 226 incidents reported, however, only eight fall under the category of violent crimes: five aggravated assaults and three robberies. The others are property crimes (arson, larceny, burglary, auto theft or theft from a motor vehicle) or what are dubbed "other crimes" (drug and alcohol offenses, public disorder, white-collar crime, and other crimes against persons). But while the increased police presence certainly accounts for the increased arrests, the problems persist — particularly in the bus terminal area.
Those with information about the March 19 shooting or any other incidents can contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867).
