DENVER (KDVR) — Previous Denver metro crime trends are continuing into the new year. After a record year for violent crime in 2021 in which Aurora was a leader in crime rates, certain areas of the city continue to be the highest crime areas.
So far the Denver metro has experienced 198 aggravated assaults and two murders in 2022, including four shootings over the weekend that sent five people to the hospital. Each of these attacks occurred in Aurora and Green Valley Ranch.
In 2022, aggravated assaults such as these shootings are happening mostly east of Denver, according to a Data Desk analysis of crime information provided by LexisNexis.
Over three-quarters of the aggravated assaults and homicides in 2022 have been responded to by only three law enforcement agencies: Aurora Police Department, Denver Police Department and Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office.
The largest share goes to the Aurora Police Department, which so far has responded to 106 aggravated assaults — 54 of which were committed with guns. The Denver Police Department responded to less than half that amount, with 51 in 2022.
In Aurora, one area accounts for half the crimes.
Forty-six of the year’s aggravated assaults occurred in the area one mile north or south of Colfax Avenue in between Yosemite Street and Chambers Road. This area has the metro’s highest concentration of aggravated assaults.
Second in density is Denver’s central neighborhoods.