On the Monday after an attacker on the 16th Street Mall stabbed four strangers — killing two — Denver Mayor Mike Johnston stood on the mall and declared that the city was still safe.
The random acts of violence that claimed two lives on the pedestrian shopping street Johnston calls “Denver’s living room” over the weekend are “exceedingly rare,” the mayor said, standing at a podium rolled out to the sidewalk of the 16th Street Mall. Business interest in the area is up. The rates of key crimes in Denver are falling. The city is, on paper, safer than it has been in years, the mayor told gathered media.
The press conference was interrupted by a passing man.
“This is your fault,” the man screamed at Johnston and Denver police Chief Ron Thomas. “Crime-loving Democrats are burning this city down!”
The man was ushered away by police officers who, a few minutes earlier, also sent a homeless man on his way, moving him from a bench where he’d been resting with a blanket and pillow before the news conference. That man paced and shouted nearby as the mayor implored Denverites to return downtown, a key goal of his administration.
“We know that there is work to do, and we also know that downtown Denver is getting more vibrant and safe by the day,” Johnston told gathered reporters.
Denver police believe 24-year-old Elijah Caudill carried out four stabbings along the 16th Street Mall on Saturday and Sunday, killing two people and injuring two others. Caudill was arrested Sunday night after officers spotted him running with a large butcher-style knife after the fourth stabbing.
He was arrested for the investigation of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, court records show. One of the victims killed was an American Airlines flight attendant who was in town for a layover, her union said. The second victim has not been publicly identified.
The four stabbings occurred on Saturday and Sunday along the 16th Street Mall.
Three stabbings happened between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday, police said. The fourth attack happened Sunday around 8 p.m. near 16th and Wynkoop streets.
Police believe Caudill carried out all four attacks, and said the four victims appear to be strangers to Caudill. The motive for the attacks remains under investigation.
The first stabbing happened at about 5:10 p.m. Saturday, when a 49-year-old man was slashed in the face near 16th Street and Tremont Place. He took himself to the hospital, and police did not learn about that attack until after 6 p.m., Thomas said Monday.
Denver police officers responded to a second stabbing in the 700 block of 16th Street, near California Street, around 5:17 p.m. Saturday, according to a news release from the police department.
Paramedics took one woman to the hospital who had been stabbed in the neck, according to the affidavit. Despite multiple surgeries, she died from her injuries early Sunday.
Denver investigators did not identify the victim, but the Association of Professional Flight Attendants said the woman killed was a Phoenix-based flight attendant, 71-year-old Celinda Levno. Levno was on a layover in Denver when she decided to visit the mall, the union said.
She began her career with America West in 1989 and had just celebrated her 35th anniversary of working as a flight attendant, union officials said.
“Celinda’s love for her horses, friends and family will always be remembered,” APFA officials said in the release, calling her death a “senseless tragedy.”
The third stabbing happened at 16th and Lawrence streets around 5:54 p.m. Saturday, police said, when a 62-year-old man was stabbed in the arm and torso.
The 62-year-old remained in critical condition Monday. Both he and the first stabbing victim are expected to survive.
Denver police realized one suspect was carrying out the attacks after the third stabbing on Saturday, Thomas said. They brought in additional officers to the area but were unable to find Caudill until Sunday, when officers spotted him running with the large knife. The officers took Caudill into custody before they realized someone had just been stabbed near 16th and Wynkoop streets, Thomas said.
That fourth stabbing happened at about 8 p.m. Sunday, and the victim, who has not been identified, was killed, police said.
The 16th Street Mall has in recent years become a flashpoint in the debate about the state of Denver’s downtown. The pedestrian shopping street emptied out during the COVID-19 pandemic, and city officials have since worked to revitalize the area, launching a years-long and much-delayed construction project aimed at boosting pedestrian traffic back to pre-pandemic levels.
The pedestrian mall is still under construction, but the stretch between Market and Curtis streets has been fully renovated and reopened, . Two of the four stabbings happened inside active construction zones.
“We understand that there is a challenge right now in 16th Street Mall with the construction and things like that, but we do the best that we can with resources on bicycle and on foot,” Thomas said during a Sunday briefing. “…The challenge is that there’s no straight vantage point from one end of the mall to the other because of the construction.”
A spokeswoman for the Downtown Denver Partnership would not discuss if the renovations had impacted safety concerns in the area on Monday.
“A safe environment is of the highest importance to all of us at the Downtown Denver Partnership, and we – together with our partners at DPD and the City – remain wholly focused on both the perception and reality of safety in our center city,” the partnership said in a statement.
Johnston on Monday frequently focused his comments on the rarity of attacks like the weekend’s four stabbings.
“We have not seen random acts of violence like this in our city center for as long as we can remember,” Johnston said. “…These random acts of violence are not typical and not something we should expect ongoing in downtown.”
Caudill has been arrested several times over the last few years in Colorado, court records show. He was most recently released from jail in Denver in November after serving 11 months for an assault against a staff member at a detox facility, Thomas said Monday. There were no conditions to his release from custody after he served his sentence, Thomas added.
Caudill was previously arrested in 2021 for threatening to stab a property manager in Westminster, court records show.
The property manager at told police he approached Caudill in August 2021 and told Caudill, who was homeless at the time, not to sleep on the property or to use the property “for public urination or defecation,” according to an affidavit and separate petition for a civil protection order.
Caudill then brandished a knife, lunged at the property manager and threatened to stab him, according to the affidavit.
“I will cut your (expletive) throat,” Caudill said, according to the affidavit. The manager then backed away and Caudill walked away, according to the affidavit.
Caudill later pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in connection with the incident, according to court records. He was initially sentenced to two years of probation, but that was revoked when he failed to meet the conditions. Caudill was then re-sentenced to two years in jail with a year of pre-sentence confinement credit, according to court records.
Caudill was also charged in 2022 with trying to grab a woman’s purse as she shopped at a Target in Thornton. The woman told police that Caudill appeared to be homeless, and followed her through the store before grabbing her purse and trying to run away with it.
The woman, however, held on to her purse and bystanders intervened to stop the attempted theft. Caudill did not use or show any weapons during that incident, according to an affidavit. He was arrested the day after the attack when he was seen in the area wearing the same clothing as the attacker. He later pleaded guilty to felony theft and was sentenced to 18 months in community corrections, but he could not meet the conditions and was later re-sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Caudill was also charged with — and pleaded guilty to — misdemeanor criminal mischief for damaging property inside the Adams County Detention Center in February 2023, court records show.
