Denver, Homeless On Alert
Grassroots Media Network (gnn@grassrootsnews.org)
Thu, 18 Nov 1999 12:38:02 -0600
Denver, Homeless On Alert
By STEVE GUTTERMAN Associated Press Writer
DENVER (AP) -- A new wave of fear is passing through
Denver's homeless community with the discovery of two more
bodies of transient men less than a week after arrests were
made in five beating deaths.
The bodies were found Wednesday after a homeless person
spotted one of the corpses in a weed-covered field behind
Union Station, Denver's main railroad station.
The unidentified men were both believed to be homeless. Police
Sgt. Tony Lombard said the circumstances ``certainly appear
to be similar'' to the deaths of five homeless men in the
downtown area since September.
Police cannot begin investigating the cases as connected until
the most recent are ruled homicides, Lombard said. Autopsies
were expected to take a few days.
Other authorities were more ready to see a connection.
``The deaths of seven homeless men have left our community in
a state of disbelief,'' said Mayor Wellington Webb, who asked
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to provide FBI resources
for the investigation.
Del Maxfield, head of the Denver Rescue Mission, applauded
Webb's request, saying the homeless murders must be solved
and stopped.
``They need to do that, because these are people we're talking
about. It's murder. It's no different from JonBenet or anyone
else,'' he said, referring to JonBenet Ramsey, the girl whose
slaying two years ago is still unsolved.
Two men and a 16-year-old boy were charged with
first-degree murder last Friday in one of the fatal beatings. The
defendants are part of a clique police call ``mall rats,'' who hang
out around Denver's busy 16th Street Pedestrian Mall.
Five others have been jailed on assault charges for nonfatal
beatings.
Wednesday's discovery has reignited fears in the downtown
area's large homeless community, already on edge after the five
killings and at least two severe beatings of homeless men.
The number of homeless seeking shelter at the Denver Rescue
Mission every night has risen sharply this fall despite unusually
warm temperatures, Maxfield said.
``You can tell there's a lot of concern now,'' he said. ``First
there were three bodies, then four, then five, and now there are
two more. So it's a pretty shocking thing for everybody.''
_AP-NY-11-18-99 1115EST
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