Some of the victims in Monday night’s shooting rampage in Denver and Lakewood have been identified by their friends and families.
Five people were killed, including the suspected shooter, and three others were injured when a series of shootings began after 5 p.m. in Denver and ended with the suspect dying in a shootout with police in Lakewood, according to the Denver Police Department.
One of those killed was Alicia Cardenas, 44, a local artist and the owner of the Sol Tribe tattoo shop at 56 Broadway. Amy Gordon, who has known Cardenas for 30 years, confirmed her death Tuesday.
“I am stunned. Alicia was an amazing individual. Her loss is a piece of Denver that’s being erased,” Gordon said. “(That area of) Broadway will never be the same.”
Gordon said she was near First and Broadway when the shooting happened outside the tattoo shop and she “got a bad feeling.” In Denver’s close-knit art community, it didn’t take long for everyone to hear what had happened, Gordon said.
“I just pray people will stop being as short sighted in their anger and disgust on society,” Gordon said.
According to friends on social media, two of the other deceased victims are Alyssa Maldonado and Dano Blair. The fourth victim has not yet been identified.
Maldonado was also associated with the Sol Tribe tattoo shop and her husband, Jimmy Maldonado, previously worked as a tattoo artist there, according to their social media accounts.
Ernesto Burbank, who said he is a family friend of Jimmy Maldonado, identified Alyssa Maldonado as the other woman fatally shot at 1st and Broadway.
“It’s hard to even believe it’s real, I reread the message hoping it was a mistake or the wrong number but it’s all real and so painful to accept,” Burbank wrote on Facebook. “I just don’t understand how so much hate can live in people and how the innocent always pay the price. Please tell your friends and family you love them. … Rest in Power our beautiful Indigenous Sisters.”
Blair was also a member of the Denver metro tattoo community, working as a tattoo artist at Lucky 13 Tattoo and Piercing in Lakewood, according to the business’s website.
“Dano Blair was taken from us all way (too) early and taken away from the people who have not had the chance to get to meet him yet,” wrote Brandon Schechter on Facebook. “Danny was such an amazing person would put anybody before himself. I have had the pleasure of calling this man my friend and artist.”
As of late Tuesday morning, authorities had not released the name of the gunman.
------
