DENVER — Flowers can be spotted on a street corner in Denver's Sunnyside neighborhood following a deadly shooting in June that led to the arrest of a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old in connection to the crime. Denver7 reported the juvenilles are accused of killing the driver of a vehicle who confronted them as they were trying to break into or steal the car.
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said the arrests highlight a troubling and growing concern.
"In this case, we had a 12 and a 14-year-old, and we are seeing unfortunately, people of that age getting involved in violent crime, either being the victim or the suspect in a violent crime," Thomas said.
▶️ Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas and community leaders talk youth violence with Denver7's Maggy Wolanske
He said youth violence is a top concern for the department and they work with community partners to address the issue with people who often have lived experience. Thomas explained what is happening in the Mile High, and how young people might gain access to these weapons.
"Well, the sad thing, I went to a community forum a year or so ago, and a young person came up to the microphone and asked the question to the panel that I was sitting on, 'Why is it easier for me to get a gun and get a job?' I think it's a sad reality. I think that getting jobs for young people that want to work is tough in Denver. Unfortunately, not so tough to get a gun," Thomas said.
His advice for preventing these violent crimes from happening is to properly store guns and make sure children do not have access to them.
"I think that there are black market opportunities to get guns and unfortunately, I think there's a steady supply of guns on the black market because people are still being irresponsible with their guns or allowing them to be stolen from their cars, stolen from their homes because they're not properly secured," Thomas said.
Shana Shaw, founder of the nonprofit Compound of Compassion, explained her organization was built around addressing youth violence. The nonprofit will soon celebrate 10 years of serving the community, helping youth who in need of support services in the community.
"We have compassionate conversations where youth just have a space to converse and talk about the things that they're dealing with and going through, which will be launching in September. Then we also have youth and recovery, where we are literally and intentional about helping youth through their addictions," Shaw said.
While conversations are happening in the community around youth violence, she emphasized there needs to be an investment in youth to teach them how to lead and best feel supported.
"We're hoping to achieve the opportunity to spread compassion throughout our city and our state and the world, because I believe that's where it starts with partnerships and people modeling the behavior on how to agree to disagree and live to talk about it another day," Shaw said.
When it comes to accessing weapons in the community, Shaw explained it is not a new problem.
"I also think that the access to being able to get a weapon has always been the same, right? It has always been the same. I think the difference now is that, youth are using them and getting them at younger ages, and that is probably what's more alarming," Shaw said.
She said the path forward requires a real investment in our youth and accountability from adults.
"It goes back to supervision, right, parents are at work and now parents are working two and three jobs to make sure food is on the table, which makes them less available as parents to parent, but what we have seen is the cutbacks in programming due to lack of funding and resources, and so who ends up getting the short end of the stick? As always, our youth," Shaw said.
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