Editor’s note (Updated Jan. 7): Police now believe Isaiah Hernandez, not Anthony Lopez, as they originally believed, fired the shots that killed Mario Rivera, 42, and critically wounded another partygoer, police said in a news release and an arrest affidavit for Hernandez. Read the story.
A 42-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder after he fired into a crowd at a New Year’s Eve house party in Denver’s Harvey Park neighborhood early Monday morning.
Anthony Lopez allegedly arrived at a house party in the 2500 block of South Zenobia Street, got in a fight with one of the partygoers and started shooting into a crowd of people gathered in the front yard, killing one man and seriously injuring another, according to the Denver Police Department.
Officers responded to reports of a shooting at the home at 1:31 a.m. Monday and found a “large crowd of people in the front yard of the property, yelling and arguing with one another,” according to an arrest affidavit.
After dispersing the crowd, police located one man with multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head. The man, who has not been identified, was taken to Swedish Medical Center and pronounced dead at 1:59 a.m. That man was identified Friday by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner as Mario Rivera, 42.
A second man with gunshot wounds to the face, neck and abdomen was taken to Denver Health Medical Center and rushed into surgery. He is in critical but stable condition, according to the department.
A witness told police Lopez called them and asked if he could come to the party and arrived with two people he described as family members. Lopez got into an altercation with someone at the party and was asked to leave, according to the affidavit.
As the party moved to the front yard, another witness reported seeing Lopez coming out of the house with a gun at his waist, which he racked and said he was “getting his family out safely,” according to the affidavit.
Lopez again confronted a person in the front yard and started arguing with them, then pointed the gun and started shooting into the crowd before fleeing the area. One witness reported someone may have returned fire during the shooting.
Lopez is in custody at the downtown detention center on a $3 million cash bail, according to court records. He is set to appear in court Thursday.
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