Park Hill business owners, residents find windows shot out Sunday morning
KDVR Fox 31
DENVER (KDVR) — There is a lot of shattered glass in Denver's Park Hill neighborhood after the windows of businesses and apartments were shot out Sunday morning.
It happened near the intersection of 29th Avenue and Fairfax Street. Boarded windows could still be seen covering windows of business Wednesday morning, three days after shots were fired in the area around 1 a.m.
River Ashmore opened up a few hours after the shooting occurred. He's an employee of Copper Door Coffee Roaster.
When he made it to work around 6:30 a.m., he saw the window of the business shattered. He took these photos of the damage.
“My initial reaction was to look for a dead bird or something because it was a high-up window," said Ashmore. "So, to me, it didn’t make sense for someone to try to break in through that.”
He noticed nothing was taken, so he picked up the phone to call his manager.
“Asking what to do. I roped off the area and tried to block it off as best as I could," he said.
After the sun came up, he looked across the street to a neighboring business. He noticed the coffee shop wasn't the only business hit.
“When I walked back over I saw a (Denver Police Department) card stuck in the door," said Ashmore. "The cops had already been by so I knew it was something more serious.”
He said police debriefed him hours later on what happened.
“He alluded to the fact that some teenagers were shooting guns in the neighborhood which I didn’t know how to feel about that," Ashmore said. "Some of the residential buildings, like the apartments across the street, they were finding bullet casings over there and windows had been hit. So, obviously, that was a lot more concerning that people would have been sleeping in their homes at that time.”
Neighbors say this is not typical activity in this part of Denver. The area was redeveloped over the last few years.
“Within the last five years this whole block has kind of popped up," said Ashmore. "Park Hill has definitely changed considerably.”
It's an area surrounded by homes, apartments, a park and businesses. Ashmore knows anyone could have been hit by the gunfire.
“I guess you wouldn’t expect that to happen over here," he said. "Just glad to hear that no one got hurt.”
Denver police say they are not able to give specific details on the case at this point, but they are investigating. So far no arrests have been made. If you have any information you are urged to give our partners with Metro Denver Crime Stoppers a call at 720-913-7867.