By Bennito L. Kelty | Westword
Businesses and residents in Denver's Ballpark District around Coors Field worry that crime is worsening in their neighborhood.
Business owners and residents in downtown Denver’s Ballpark District want police and city officials to make their area safer after a shooting in the area on Father’s Day left a 23-year-old man dead and witnesses traumatized.
“Crime in this neighborhood is horrible,” said Justin Lloyd, the owner of Star Bar at 2137 Larimer Street, during a community meeting on Wednesday, June 18. “In certain areas of town at certain points throughout the day, just put police back on the streets, and whether that’s on foot, on a motorcycle, or on a bicycle or on a horse, or whatever, I think it would make a big difference.”
About thirty Ballpark residents attended the community meeting and expressed similar concerns to the Denver Police Department.
The Ballpark Collective Registered Neighborhood Organization has been holding monthly meetings with residents and police for the past two years; the Ballpark Collective RNO formed the basis of the Ballpark District General Improvement District (GID), a taxing entity set up last year by voters living near Coors Field to fund public services.
The neighborhood’s liaison with the DPD, Lieutenant David Albi, told residents and business owners that the Ballpark District had a 19 percent decrease in overall crime when comparing the period from January to May to the same period in 2024. However, the meeting came after a fatal midnight shooting on Sunday, June 15, in the parking lot of 2229 Blake Street, which is the address for Zi Lofts condominiums and 4Play, a bar and restaurant on the ground floor of the condos. Some Zi Loft residents at the meeting had witnessed the killing, with one person arrested for the homicide.
A verified Zi Lofts resident who asked to be anonymous tells Westword that he and his wife were woken up by three gunshots in the middle of the night, and then heard sounds of screaming and wailing.
“There was, like, a pause and then we heard one woman yelling, ‘They shot my brother in the head!” the resident recalls. “It just went on and on and on, even after the police came…the human element of it, women screaming and people yelling for help, that’s really hard to hear. You kind of have a visceral reaction to it. It’s gut-wrenching.”