A Denver jury found a 23-year-old man guilty of killing an innocent bystander and community leader Thursday.

Lu Reh was convicted of first-degree murder and multiple counts of attempted murder Thursday morning in connection to the 2022 killing of 42-year-old Ma Kaing, according to a news release from the Denver District Attorney’s Office.

He now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole when sentenced on May 2.

The shooting occurred on July 15, 2022 around 11:30 p.m. on Xenia Street in the East Colfax Avenue neighborhood.

Reh and three other men fired shots from a car driving around New Freedom Park. All four were later arrested, with police connecting them to a gang affiliated with the neighborhood.

Kaing, who had immigrated to Denver from Burma, was unloading a vehicle with family members nearby when the shooting started. She was struck and killed by one of the bullets. Other buildings and vehicles were also hit, but no other person was injured.

Four suspects were arrested: Nu Ra Ah La, Pa Reh, Lu Reh and Swa Bay.

La and Bay pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder. Pa Reh is scheduled for trial in July.

After Kaing’s death, two community meetings were held at her apartment complex, Hidden Brook Communities, with people who live there calling for change to make them safer. Kaing’s son, Kyaw Win Oo, claimed that gangs had taken over the area.

“Ma Kaing was an important and beloved member of her community, and her murder was an unspeakable tragedy. With this verdict, Lu Reh will now pay a heavy price for his senseless actions, which have caused so much harm,” District Attorney John Walsh said in the release.

The murder is the second that Lu Reh has had ties to in the same East Colfax neighborhood.

In May, 2024, Reh was charged in connection with a separate homicide that occurred in Aurora about two months before the death of Kaing.

Aurora police said their counterparts in Denver found a man lying in an alley between the 1600 blocks of Willow and Xanthia streets around 4 p.m. on May 30, 2022. The man, later identified as 44-year-old Ricardo Ryans, had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The investigation took the Aurora Police Department two years and led to charging Reh with first-degree murder and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.

Reh is scheduled to stand trial for those charges in Adams County District Court in March.

The Denver Gazette’s news partner, 9News, contributed to this report