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Fatal juvenile shootings took a brazen turn | 2024: A LOOK BACK

teen gun violence meeting (copy)

Four shootings involving juvenile suspects shook the metro Denver area between the end of June and the end of September.

In two other incidents, juveniles allegedly shot at local police department vehicles during pursuits, one of which involved an AK-47.

While numbers showed that shootings — both fatal and nonfatal — involving juvenile suspects had plateaued in Denver and Aurora since 2022, the high-profile and brazen nature of the 2024 shootings left some officials reeling.

“It’s just a deadly combination when you take kids whose brains haven’t fully developed, you put them in a situation where there aren’t many guardians and you bring in minor conflicts. They just don’t know how to resolve their conflicts in the appropriate ways,” David Pyrooz, a criminologist and associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder, told The Denver Gazette in September.

Since 2010, murder committed by juveniles in the state has increased 210% from rates of 0.2 per 100,000 people in 2010 to 0.5 per 100,000 people in 2023, according to a study by the Common Sense Institute, a Denver-based think tank.

Officials, community leaders and law enforcement said they are trying to slow the growing trend by considering stronger penalties, after-school programs and increased parental influence.

“I’m tired of hearing that we need to lean into these kids,” said Joseph Silva, vice president of equity initiatives at the Generation Schools Network and founder of the Silva Family Foundation nonprofit. “We need to lean around our kids. We need to lean around our communities. Allow yourself to get messy in the muck.”

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