UPDATE | Monday, 3:11 p.m. — The 21-year-old who died Thursday after a neighbor allegedly shot through a window as he played video games has been identified as Joryn Dean, according to the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner. The cause of death was a gunshot wound and the manner has been deemed a homicide.
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DENVER — A Denver woman has been arrested after she was accused of shooting through a bedroom window at multiple people playing video games, killing one man.
Yolanda Hilliard, 49, was taken into custody for investigation of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder on Thursday.
Around 2:50 p.m. Thursday, officers with the Denver Police Department responded to the 2800 block of Monroe Street, a few blocks north of City Park. They were advised by dispatchers that somebody was yelling and shooting in the street outside a fourplex housing unit on that block, according to a probable cause statement. The suspect was described as a heavy set black woman in her 40s or 50 with a dark-colored hat.
When officers arrived, they located the woman and took her into custody. She was identified as Hilliard, according to a probable cause statement.
When officers cleared the area, they saw a handgun in plain view on a couch in the living room of Hilliard's residence. After discovering that the shooting had happened next door, they secured a search warrant. Police went in to the other home and found a deceased man in a bedroom. He has only been identified as a 21-year-old. According to the probable cause statement, he'd been shot in the head. He was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead at 3:19 p.m. Thursday.
Police said Hilliard's front door is about six feet away from the window that was shot out.
Denver police spoke with others who were involved and learned that at least three people had been in the bedroom playing video games at the time of the shooting. They said the suspect had started to shoot into the bedroom from outside the bedroom window, according to a probable cause statement.
A detective found video surveillance that showed the suspect after the shooting — she was wearing a black hat and carrying a handgun, which she waved around. She appeared to be yelling, according to a probable cause statement.
The other people who had been in the room playing video games were brought to the police station for interviews.
One said they had all been inside the bedroom when the nextdoor neighbor pushed the bedroom window curtain aside and leaned in. They asked her to leave and then closed the window and curtains. Shortly after, the same woman started to shoot through the window. He said as he ran out of the room, he saw the same woman who'd approached the window before shooting through it, according to the probable cause statement.
A second person said the neighbor had leaned into the window as they played video games and was mumbling incoherently. About five minutes after they closed the window and curtain, they heard gunshots coming from the window. He said he saw the neighbor waving a gun around after the shooting, according to the probable cause statement.
A third person said she was in her home when she heard gunfire. She said she grabbed her child and got on the ground. She told police she waited a while before she went outside to see what had happened. She said she saw Hilliard waving a gun around and watched her yell at another woman standing in the street. She positively identified a photograph of Hilliard as the same woman who had been waving the gun, according to the probable cause statement.
A detective at the crime scene found eight spent 40-caliber shell casings near the window of the bedroom. The gun recovered from Hilliard's home is a 40-caliber hand gun, according to the probable cause statement.