Police are looking for a suspect after a man was shot to death in front of the Salvation Army Family Center early Wednesday morning.
The victim, described by witnesses as being in his early 20s, was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
A pool of blood marked the location directly in front of the outreach center where the man had fallen.
Witnesses said they heard two volleys of gunshots near the corner of 22nd and Stout streets at around 2 a.m.
“I was asleep. I heard a volley of five shots. I saw two people start to run away,” said Vincent Mineault, who lives at the Renaissance Stout Street Lofts.
When he looked out his window down at the street he saw two men running in different directions, one going southeast, the other southwest, said Mineault, a criminal justice major at Colorado Technical College.
When he turned away he heard a second volley of about five shots.
“I heard, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God,'” Mineault said.
He looked out his window again and saw a man lying on the sidewalk on the southeast corner of the Salvation Army.
“I was a bit shaky,” Mineault said. “The first patrol car showed up at 2:17 a.m. “
Ted Kefle, 22, who said he was hanging out with friends about a block away when he heard what sounded like firecrackers.
“Some white guy was yelling loudly. It was very weird,” he said. “I can’t believe it,” he said when he learned that someone was shot to death.
Stout Street was cordoned off with police tape between 21st Street and Park Avenue West. Investigators working out of a mobile crime lab were focusing efforts near 22nd and Stout streets.
A row of four police cadets walked slowly in a line, looking for evidence.
The area has a concentration of non-profit groups that cater to the needs of the homeless, said Kimberle Easton, chief Executive Officer of Urban Peak, which has an outreach a half block from where the shooting happened.
“Unfortunately the image of the street is that the homeless are responsible,” Easton said. “But it’s not the homeless. The drug dealers aren’t homeless. It may have nothing to do with the homeless.”
She said the teens that Urban Peaks helps are rattled by such extreme violence.
“It has a big impact on the homeless kids. It triggers panic attacks. It makes them pretty scared,” Easton said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, or
