AURORA — The shooting death Saturday of the founder of the Crips gang in Denver was not gang-related, Aurora police said Tuesday.
“This shooting was not gang-motivated,” Aurora police spokeswoman Shannon Lucy said. “That’s the message. We don’t want retaliation. We don’t want violence based on something that is not true.”
Despite the lack of a clear suspect, police said they are confident the death of Michael Asberry outside an Aurora apartment complex had nothing to do with gangs.
Police said that conclusion is based on witness accounts and evidence gathered at the scene. Lucy said the shooting was a “personal beef” over a “property dispute.”
Some feared tensions would climb among metro-area gangs after Asberry’s death. But Lucy said the department’s gang unit hasn’t seen any increased violence since the shooting, although gang officers are keeping a close eye on that.
“We are looking very closely, and we have not seen anything,” she said.
Those who work with gangs disagree.
On Tuesday afternoon, former members of the Crips and rival Bloods gangs, along with gang intervention providers, gathered at New Hope Baptist Church in Denver to call for a halt to any gang violence.
“A gang war is brewing in the streets of Denver and Aurora,” said J. Frederick Nathaniel Mason III, who was overcome with emotion and began to weep when he recalled his good friend Asberry.
After the event, the Rev. Leon Kelly, who runs the Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives program, said there has been an upsurge in gang violence since Asberry’s death.
Kelly said he knows of three shootings and six other assaults, as well as a firebombing.
Meanwhile, a fire that gutted Holly Square, which authorities say was a known hangout of the Bloods in northeast Denver, shows “elements of arson,” Denver Fire Department spokesman Phil Champagne said Tuesday.
The slaying and fire were within a half hour of each other, and some have speculated that the two were connected, but police could not comment on that theory.
Law-enforcement officials have told The Denver Post that Asberry was trying to work his way back into the local drug trade, which could have led to his killing. But a prominent anti-gang activist said Asberry was trying to sever his gang ties and turn his life around.
