Shortly after midnight on March 15, residents in a Lowry apartment complex called Denver police because a party was too loud.
Police were on the eighth floor clearing out the nearly 100 party-goers when shots rang from the parking lot below. As police raced to learn what happened, people scattered, taking clues in two murders with them.
Four months later, police have not arrested anyone, and they are frustrated by the lack of cooperation.
“It’s like a big puzzle out there, and they don’t know their little piece is relevant to solving it,” said Denver police Cmdr. Ron Saunier, who leads the major crimes division.
Silence among witnesses has hampered several cases this year, but it’s “the party” that keeps coming up when police talk about unsolved crimes.
And it illustrates how police continue to battle a code of silence on the streets, a phenomenon that some experts believe has worsened as outrage over police brutality has grown in minority communities.
Of the dozens of people around when bullets flew that night, none volunteered to talk to police about the shooting that left 30-year-old DeAnthony Williams and 28-year-old Tyrael Adams dead.
Earlier this year, District Attorney Mitch Morrissey mentioned the party while discussing with a lack of arrests in a string of shooting deaths.
The party was organized by a family wanting to mark two important occasions.
Latifah Hurd, 24, told an investigator that she was one in a group that had rented the eighth floor of the Lex at Lowry complex on East Cedar Avenue to celebrate a niece’s birthday and to commemorate the recent passing of her mother, according to a search warrant affidavit related to the case.
Hurd told a detective that she had 10 brothers and sisters, including Williams. The detective found her crying on the phone when he arrived at the complex. Two other women were with her, the search warrant said.
The women told police that about 50 people had been invited to the party, but numerous uninvited guests showed up, the warrant said. Police had been called twice because of noise complaints. The second time police came, around 12:40 a.m., people were spilling into the building and parking lot. That’s when shots were fired.
“At this time, it is uncertain if one of the people who was at the party on the 8th floor was involved in the shooting,” the search warrant said. “However, it does appear that at least one of the victims was present at the party.”
That same weekend, two people were killed and another person was wounded in . Three of the four shootings were gang-related, police said. No one has been arrested in any of the killings.
All were part of a string of gang shootings in which police found little cooperation.
Saunier did not want to speculate on reasons why people in a particular case would not talk to his investigators. And he did not want to give any credence to the “no snitching” mentality.
Yes, the lack of witnesses is frustrating, but investigators will not give up, he said.
“If they’re not talking to me, they’re not talking,” Saunier said. “I don’t know why.”
Gang shootings bring particular challenges because members will not tell on each other. Neighbors often fear retaliation.
Sometimes, gang members prefer to pay back shooters themselves.
“I’ve had cases where that’s exactly what they tell us,” Saunier said.
The “no snitch” code is not a new challenge in policing. In 2009, the Police Executive Research Forum released a report on it after police across the country began realizing the code of silence was causing their clearance rates to drop.
The report identified multiple reasons for the code, including fear of retaliation, fear of police and pop culture’s reinforcement of the idea.
Experts said it would take a concerted effort by police and the community to change the mindset.
That remains the solution today.
But the trust between police and communities of color have further eroded, said Delores Jones-Brown, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and policing expert who participated in the 2009 study as well as President Barack Obama’s 21st Century Policing task force.
“Police have alienated certain community members and treated them all like criminals,” Jones-Brown said.
Evidence exists to prove that a gentler touch in minority communities helps police solve homicides and other crimes, she said.
“The police have to take some level of responsibility that their behavior in communities affects how they solve real crime,” Jones-Brown said.
The Denver Police Department, with support of the mayor’s office, has worked hard to change those relationships, Saunier said.
A robust Crimestoppers program, which is an avenue for anonymous tips, helps, he said.
He cited a shooting death on July 19 outside a party on North Stuart Street as an example.
In that case, nearly everyone who was there agreed to be interviewed by investigators, Saunier said.
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips
