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The Denver District Attorney’s Office has charged Ryan Ashland, 41, with two counts of murder in the first degree for an attack at PT’s Showclub on April 28.
Ashland allegedly attacked four people with a baseball bat at the strip club at 1601 West Evans Avenue, in an episode that a dancer there told us was completely random.
The attack happened around 1 p.m., an hour before the club opens and security arrives on Sundays. “The building stays open so girls can get in, and the manager’s usually in the office or at the bar,” said the dancer, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity.
The man who died in the incident, Wendell Janis, “was just walking down the street and heard and saw the commotion and started walking up to see what was going on,” she added. “That guy with the bat walked toward him and just hit him.”
Three of the four victims were taken to Denver Health with blunt force injuries to their heads and bodies; Janis died at the hospital. Another victim remains hospitalized, a third suffered bodily injury but has been released, and a fourth victim suffered minor injuries and was not hospitalized.
Ashland will next appear in court on May 16. He also faces two counts of criminal attempt to commit murder in the first degree, two counts of assault in the first degree, one count of first-degree burglary, one count of assault in the second degree and four counts of menacing.
