One year after the shooting outside Denver’s East High School that took 16-year-old Luis Garcia’s life, his family says they still feel his missing presence but are hopeful for justice.
For Santos Garcia, Luis’s father, the last few days have been especially hard. He last saw his son on Super Bowl Sunday, a day before Luis was shot on Feb. 13, 2023, while sitting in his car near East 17th Avenue and City Park Esplanade outside East High.
Luis, a junior who played on East’s varsity soccer team, died several weeks later.
“The day before yesterday, I went to the living room where we last saw him last year, and he wasn’t there,” Santos Garcia said during a Tuesday news conference marking the anniversary of the shooting. “We don’t (celebrate) anything anymore. We don’t listen to music because we remember his dancing, his singing. Everything has changed for us.”
A potential new development in the case has given the family hope for a “scintilla of closure” and justice for Luis’s death, the family’s attorney said Tuesday.
The Denver Police Department has “presented” a case to the Denver District Attorney’s Office for consideration, attorney Matthew Barringer said during the news conference at his Greenwood Village office.
“The Garcias pray, hope the Denver District Attorney’s Office will be able to move forward on the case,” Barringer said. “It has been an unbelievably difficult year for the Garcia family. He wasn’t there this past year, nor will he ever be there (again).”
An unidentified Denver Police Department spokesperson said in an email Tuesday that detectives have not formally filed their case with the DA, but have “consulted” with prosecutors on the findings of their investigation.
“The Denver Police Department continues working hard to identify and hold accountable the person or persons responsible for the death of Luis Garcia and detectives have made significant progress in the case,” the spokesperson wrote in the email. “To protect the integrity of this ongoing investigation, there are no updates or suspect information that can be shared, at this time.”
Representatives of the Denver District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for more information on the case.
Two juveniles were arrested after the shooting on separate charges, but police have not publicly linked either of them to the shooting itself, nor have they announced any other arrests since the day of the shooting.
Since Luis Garcia’s shooting and the shooting of two administrators insidi East High a little over a month later, Denver Public Schools has reintroduced school resource officers across the district after they had been removed in 2020 — a welcome addition to school safety, Barringer said, but still not enough to address security at schools.
Both shootings prompted questions and outrage from members of the community over ongoing issues with school violence and student safety at DPS.
Barringer said his office interviewed several people at different DPS schools who said teachers and administrators are “afraid to report when they are the victim” of assaults at their schools.
“The procedures that are employed as it relates to student discipline are utterly lacking,” Barringer said. “Imagine, you have teachers that are afraid to take care of the security at their own institution. What are the kids going to do with each other?”
The Garcias in a May legal notice preceding a wrongful-death lawsuit accused DPS, district leaders and the city of negligence in failing to protect students, and Barringer said the district’s disciplinary matrix could be targeted in the lawsuit.
Barringer said his office has not filed the lawsuit yet so as not to impede the Denver Police Department’s criminal investigation.
DPS spokesman Scott Pribble said in an email that the district “encourages all of our employees to report when a crime such as assault occurs in the workplace.”
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