Denver’s gun violence dropped significantly during the first six months of the year but still remains much higher than it was five years ago, according to Denver Police Department data obtained by The Denver Post through an open records request.
The city saw a 19% reduction in nonfatal shootings — with a 29% drop in the number of wounded victims — during the first six months of 2024 compared to the first six months of 2023, according to the data.
The city’s homicides remained nearly flat, with 38 people killed in the first six months of 2023 compared to 35 killed in the city between January and June this year.
Ninety-nine people were wounded across 87 shootings between January and June this year, down from 141 people wounded in 107 nonfatal shootings in that six-month time frame last year, the data shows.
“We’re encouraged,” Denver police Chief Ron Thomas said Thursday.
He attributed the year-over-year drop in gun violence to police work targeted on specific problem areas and activities, including focusing officers on downtown violence and on shootings connected to nightclubs and large parties. He also applauded the work of community advocates who directly connect with youths to deescalate confrontations and head off potential violence.
“We haven’t had as much retaliatory violence — I think that is a testament to the work they are doing,” Thomas said.
At the start of July in 2023, 15 children between the ages of 12 and 17 had been shot and wounded in Denver, and another four had been killed, the data shows.
Six children in that age group were shot in the first six months of 2024. Another three have been slain. Together, that’s about a 52% decline, from 19 youth killed or wounded to nine during the first six months of the year.
The slower pace of youth violence this year continues a trend the city saw in 2023, when youth homicide victims dropped by 47% compared to 2022, and the number of children and teenagers wounded in shootings declined by 20%.
“There are still a lot of kids who are losing their lives,” said Jason McBride, a violence interruption specialist at nonprofit Struggle of Love. “They’re getting younger and younger. Those numbers don’t tell you the story…The truth is we are failing. Period. We have failed these young people in every aspect of their lives: educationally, socially, economically, parentally — all the big -ly words, we have failed them at that.”
The city’s violence remains much higher than it was in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted every aspect of life. In 2020, the city’s homicides soared to highs not seen in four decades.
But before that, during the first six months of 2019, 56 people were shot and survived across 51 shootings, police data shows, and the city saw 26 homicides. That’s 40% fewer nonfatal shootings and 25% fewer homicides than during the first six months of 2024.
“I do think there is an opportunity for us to get to pre-pandemic levels,” Thomas said. “I still think there are too many guns in the community in the hands of those who shouldn’t have them.”
He hopes new legislation around safe gun storage will cut down on the number of carelessly stored guns that are stolen and funneled into kids’ hands.
Much of this year’s 29% drop in shooting victims — 42 fewer people shot in 2024 than through June 2023 — can be attributed to a drop in the number of shootings with multiple victims, which spiked in 2023.
The city saw 29 people wounded in five shootings with four or more victims in the first six months of 2023 — including the shooting during Nuggets championship celebrations that injured nine.
So far this year, the city has seen only one shooting with at least four victims. The city has seen 10 gang-related nonfatal shootings so far this year, compared to four at this time last year.
“We have been lucky to not have as many multi-victim shootings,” Thomas said. “But part of that goes with the focus on Lower Downtown, where there is a high volume of people and a likelihood of more people being shot when there is a gun-related incident.”
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Originally Published: July 13, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.
