Bullets flew and bodies bled this weekend in Colorado, as they do nearly every weekend, as they do almost every day. The tragedies pile up in mostly small reports in local papers and as short pieces on the local news, adding to the mind-bending statistics tied to gun violence in America.
In the spirit of longtime newsman and New York Times columnist Joe Nocera’s Gun Report blog, here’s a sampling from news reports published this weekend in Colorado:
At 5 pm at Colfax and Broadway outside the Capitol in Denver an alleged altercation at a bus stop led 70-year-old Phillip Citro to shoot a younger man in the hand. Mayhem erupted around the scene, according to reports, with people fleeing for cover in every direction and ducking into a nearby city bus. Denver Police “had no explanation as to why the shooter was not wearing pants upon his arrest,” according to KWGN.
In Aurora on Sunday at 8:30 pm, a man was gunned down outside Smoky Hill Liquor store at Smoky Hill and Chambers roads. Witnesses said the shooter took off in a light-colored car.
Sunday night, in Lakewood at 9 pm , a man was shot outside Hart’s Corner Bar and Restaurant at Mississippi Ave. and Sheridan Blvd. No details yet on the extent of the injuries.
Also Sunday night, according to CBS Denver, drivers in a maroon vehicle at Curtis and Downing Streets shot at a bike rider, hitting the rider in the leg. Officers found shotgun shells at the scene.
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As Colorado University’s Gun Dialog project reported at the end of last year, shooting deaths in Colorado have outpaced car-accident deaths since 2009, and in 2012, gun-shot suicides alone overtook car-accident deaths. The project reported that 457 Coloradans died in car crashes and 532 shot themselves to death.
According to the national Gun Violence Archive, there have been 6,061 incidents of gun violence in the States since January 1st, resulting in 1,554 gun-shot deaths and 2,598 injuries.
[ Image by ActuaLitte ]
