Denver police suspect there was drug dealing happening at the home in the city’s Sunnyside neighborhood late Thursday.
A probable cause affidavit for the suspect in the slaying, 54-year-old Robert Moore, says officers found a large quantity of suspected narcotics and nine firearms at the home on the 4200 block of Tejon Street. Investigators also spotted baggies with a white powdery substance inside and a digital scale.
Moore told detectives that he fired two shots at someone who tried to force open the home’s door and that he thought he had struck a person, the affidavit says. No one at the home called police after the shooting.
Zachariah Chavez, 35, was taken to Denver Health in a private vehicle where he was pronounced dead.
A witness to the shooting told police he was driving a vehicle carrying Chavez and others when Chavez said to pull over at the home where the shooting happened. The witness, according to the affidavit, then saw Chavez walk up to the home’s door before hearing two gunshots and seeing Chavez collapse.
Moore was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and possession of a controlled substance. He is being held at Denver’s downtown jail in lieu of bail, city records show.
