Police Release Video Of One Of City's Recent Random Attacks
DENVER (CBS4) - Police investigating a series of random attacks downtown in recent months released new video this week showing one of the crimes.
There have been at least 15 assaults and robberies across the downtown area since the beginning of August.
The video of one attack was captured by one of the city's HALO cameras, and police say it's their best look yet at a group of the suspects. It shows a group of people at 16th and Arapahoe pushing a victim down and beating them.
So far there have been no arrests in any of the random beatings, but police are hoping the video will lead to new tips about who the criminals might be.
Detective John White said in some of the attacks some of the suspects begin yelling at the victim or one of the group bumps that person.
"These suspects are looking for a confrontation," he said.
"When those individuals create those types of confrontations other suspects appear and they assault and or rob our victims."
Michael Weber is the father of one of the beating victims. His son Jason and some friends were at a toga party on Aug. 21 at Maloney's Tavern on Market Street near 15th. On their way out, just down the road, they got separated and there was a confrontation.
One friend was knocked out and Weber was beaten severely. He wound up with multiple skull fractures and a broken nose and was initially in a coma after the beating due to a brain injury.
"It was a living nightmare," Weber said. "I got to watch my son grow up again, from a 3 year old back to an adult."
Weber says he hopes more is done to prevent these attacks in the future. He's advocating more patrols, more HALO cameras and requiring bars to hire off-duty cops.
"It just breaks my heart that other people are going through this," he said. "I want to do everything I can to prevent this from happening to someone else."
In the attack of Weber's son, police say surveillance video shows someone videotaping the attack. They say in a lot of the assault cases people may have been using their phones to record the beatings. They are asking anyone who has seen the footage to come forward.
White said they are aware of at least one suspect who appears to have been involved in multiple assaults.
