The suspect in the 16th Street Mall stabbing attacks that shocked the city last weekend was homeless during a prior incident, in which he chased and threatened a maintenance worker with a knife, according to court documents.  

Elijah Caudill, 24, was arrested over the weekend in connection to the four stabbings on the 16th Street Mall that left two people dead and two others injured between Saturday and Sunday. 

On Aug. 30, 2021, an application for a restraining order was filed against Caudill in the Adams County Court by the Village at Park Centre shopping center at 121th Avenue and Huron Street after Caudill allegedly threatened a maintenance worker with a knife, the court records showed.

That complaint described Caudill as “homeless.” The shopping center claimed he had been urinating and defecating on the property multiple times before and the maintenance employee told Caudill to leave the property.

On On Aug. 11, 2021, Caudill snuck up behind the maintenance man “with a knife, yelling with obscenities and “jabbing his knife” at the employee, the shopping center said.

Westminster police arrested Caudill the next day, and prosecutors charged him with felony menacing, according to 9News. 

9News added that, in a plea deal with prosecutors, Caudill pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge and received probation. Caudill didn’t show for multiple meetings with his probation officer and that eventually, that officer filed a motion seeking to revoke his probation and requested that the judge order Caudill to complete what’s known as “cognitive behavioral therapy” to address “anti-social behaviors.”

Caudill didn’t complete the therapy, which led to another motion to revoke his probation. In that case, the judge checked a box in a court order that said: “There is reason to believe the defendant poses substantial risk of serious harm to others,” 9News reported. 

Caudill, who grew up in the northwest Denver metro area, has been arrested 15 times since 2018 on charges that included criminal mischief, disturbing the peace, robbery (2022), menacing (2021), theft (2019), and twice for sex assault (2024), court records showed.

Two of those 15 arrests occurred in Adams County.

Among the other cases against Caudill was a sexual assault charge in January 2024 out of Denver, in which he allegedly groped a woman at the Denver Cares Detox Facility. Prosecutors in that case asked for a “competency pre-screen,” according to court records.

While in the Denver Jail on that case, prosecutors alleged that Caudill, on two consecutive days, assaulted two inmates inside the jail. In the latter incident, court records showed that Caudill placed a female in a chokehold before punching her in the face. Both cases resulted in misdemeanor charges. 

Caudill’s parole came to an end in May, but he remained in the Denver Detention Center. 

While in custody at the Denver Detention Center, Caudill kicked a glass door repeatedly and shattered it in the jail’s recreation yard on Aug. 8, 2024, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Caudill was ultimately accepted by the Bridges Program — a statewide program that facilitates collaboration between the criminal justice and mental health systems that has placed court liaisons throughout Colorado’s 22 judicial districts — on Nov. 12, with the promise of reporting to the program via the bus in Aurora. His defense attorney claimed he would be staying at a home in Aurora, as well, according to court records.

Caudill failed to make a court appearance for the alleged sex assault at Denver Cares on Dec. 20, 2024. A failure to appear warrant was ordered that day.

Around a month later, with a warrant out for his arrest, Caudill allegedly stabbed the four people in downtown Denver.

One of those victims, 34-year-old Nicholas Burkett, was also homeless, according to workers near the Union Station area where he was frequently seen.

The Denver Gazette reporter Carol McKinley and 9News contributed to this report. For more on this and other stories visit, our partners at 9News.com.