Murder Rates in North Denver Change Little Over Past 5 Years

The Denver District Attorney’s Office has filed first-degree murder charges against 52-year old Charlene King for the shooting death of Terance Longo, age 67. On Feb. 9, Denver Police officers responded to a 911 call King placed from a home in the 4900 block of Clay Street in Chaffee Park. Officers found Longo dead on the scene and the medical examiner later announced that Longo had died from a gunshot wound. 

Homicides are relatively rare in North Denver compared to several other neighborhoods, according to statistics available from the Denver Police Department. The February killing marks the first murder in the Chaffee Park neighborhood in over five years. In the 10 neighborhoods that comprise The Denver North Star’s coverage area, 21 murders have been reported since the start of 2015, with an average of 4 per year.

Across the city, the Montbello neighborhood had the highest number of murders during that time (21), followed by Five Points (20), while the Union Station and North Capitol Hill neighborhoods had the highest murder rates by population density. The lowest homicide rates were in South Denver neighborhoods, several of which report zero homicides in the past five years.

Note: Denver police records combine the neighborhoods of Regis and Inspiration Point in the following data.

Murder by neighborhood Jan. 1, 2015 through Feb. 5, 2020

By Year: 2015

By Year: 2016

By Year: 2017

By Year: 2018

By Year: 2019

By Year: 2020 (January/February only)

Photo of King courtesy of the Denver District Attorney’s Office.