COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (KDVR) — Gunfire erupted in what neighbors describe as a normally quiet neighborhood Monday morning. When the shooting stopped, a man was dead and a truck had been stolen.
It was quiet Monday afternoon in the 5400 block of Leyden Street, but there was chaos in the middle of the night.
A man was killed close to a small park which is set on a tiny lot between homes.
One neighbor heard a woman yelling and knew something was wrong.
“A woman was screaming they killed him,” Rodolfo Martinez said.
It was just about 2:10 a.m. Monday, when three men arrived in a dark-colored sedan in front of a home and confronted two other males. One neighbor said shots were fired and screaming was heard.
‘I got really scared, because it’s in my neighborhood’
In her nearly 50 years in the neighborhood, Donna Young has never seen anything like this.
“It was a woman and a man screaming and crying and I saw the body that was laying halfway into the driveway and into the street,” Young said.
The three suspects stole a maroon 2003 Chevy Silverado 1500 pickup truck with an extended cab and a lift kit with Colorado license plate APHT32.
Police said it has damage in the tailgate area on the driver’s side.
“I got really scared because it’s in my neighborhood because I lived here for 11 years,” a woman who wanted to remain anonymous said.
Commerce City counted 6 homicides so far in 2022
Police say this is the sixth homicide in Commerce City this year. In 2021, there were seven homicides in the city and five in 2020.
Young said it’s usually a quiet street.
“I know that evil is going to happen no matter where you live. It’s just another warning to be careful,” Young said as we spoke in her living room.
By mid-afternoon, things seemed to be getting back to normal on Leyden Street, except for the family who lost a loved one in the middle of the night. He has not yet been identified.
If you have information on this crime, you are urged to call the Commerce City Police Department’s tip line at (303) 289-3626. You can remain anonymous.