AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — Following a deadly shooting in Aurora on Friday night, neighbors in the area of East 12th Avenue and Ironton Street are worried about teens in their community.
“They look very normal, like school kids, but then you see them covered in blood and you realize something very bad happened to them,” Damian Alcazar, who stated he helped two teen shooting victims said.
Damian and his wife Nora live right on 12th Street in Aurora. They said Friday night they heard several popping sounds outside, then a car drove up onto their front lawn. When they went outside to help, that’s when they said they noticed the two young teens, both bleeding.
“When I got close to the driver’s side, I noticed there was another guy in there injured. He was shot in the head, and he was bleeding from the face and everywhere,” Damian said.
Nora said she called 911 right away for help. The other victim, also described as a teenager, was bleeding from his left hand.
Aurora Police said one of the victims was transported to the hospital via ambulance, where he later died. The other victim walked to the hospital, and at last update from police, was expected to survive.
“It’s senseless violence where teenagers shoot at other teenagers for no reason at all,” Damian said.
These types of violent teen-on-teen shootings are on the rise, according to David Bechhoefer, a violence prevention expert with the University of Colorado said.
“It’s case by case. It’s community by community. It could be gang-involved it could not be gang-involved,” Bechhoefer said.
He stated there are a series of nearly 20 risk factors that can contribute to problem behavior in teens and even social media can create issues. The risk factors are listed in this chart.
“If youth are disrespecting each other on social media more and more, that’s translating to violence in the real world,” Bechhoefer said.
But he said the City and County of Denver has created a Youth Violence Prevention Plan and a youth-led media campaign Power of One.