Attack on 2 apparent Venezuelan migrants in Denver area seems gang-related, police chief says

By COLLEEN SLEVIN The Associated Press

FILE - A boy rides his bicycle past apartment buildings as a rally staged by the East Colfax Community Collective is held in the courtyard to address chronic problems in the apartment buildings occupied by people displaced from their home countries in central and South America, Sept. 3, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/David Zalubowski]

DENVER (AP) — More than a dozen people tied up, pistol whipped and terrorized a man and woman at a crime-riddled apartment complex in a Denver suburb, the city’s police chief said Tuesday, adding it appeared to be a gang-related attack on two Venezuelan immigrants.

Police said around 13 to 15 armed people accosted the man and woman at their apartment in a complex, which was the scene of a viral video that led now President-elect President Donald Trump to claim Aurora had been taken over by a Venezuelan gang. City officials have pushed back on that, saying problems at locations like the complex are isolated and don’t represent what’s happening in the city overall.

The unsubstantiated allegation gained momentum last summer during the presidential campaign following dissemination of the video from a complex resident that showed armed men knocking on an apartment door, intensifying fears the Tren de Aragua gang was in control of the six-building complex.

In the latest incident, the male victim was also stabbed during a roughly five-hour ordeal that began Monday night but is expected to survive, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said. He said all of the people involved are most likely from Venezuela and there is a “high assumption” that those responsible are affiliated with Tren de Aragua.

The gang, which started in an infamously lawless Venezuelan prison, has expanded as more than 8 million desperate Venezuelans had fled economic turmoil at home.

Based on how the home invasion unfolded, Chamberlain said, he was confident it was gang-related.

“Something is seriously wrong and we’re going to try to fix it as soon as we can, and we have been,” he said of crime at the complex, noting that police calls declined this month.

Chamberlain said the complex is in one of the pockets of the city that has crime problems. However, he said the sprawling city of 400,000 people east of Denver is not infested by gangs.

The victims were taken against their will to another apartment in the six-building complex while their apartment was burglarized, Chamberlain said. They were released early Tuesday after promising not to call the police but they contacted authorities anyway after driving to a friend’s home, Chamberlain said. He praised them for their courage.

Police said 14 people have been detained as they investigate what happened but no arrests have been made yet.

Both victims were taken to hospitals, he said, but authorities had no immediate update on their conditions Tuesday.

Chamberlain said police were getting help from federal authorities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to identify those detained by police.

City officials have gone to court to have most of the complex closed for being what they called a criminal nuisance, alleging that the owner’s longtime neglect of the buildings has allowed crime to flourish there. They expect five of the buildings will be shut down early next year after the property owner, New York-based CBZ Management, did not try to fight the action.

The company has claimed it was unable to provide maintenance of the complex because gangs had taken over. It did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. On X, the company posted a news story about the home invasion, saying “We hope the message is learned so it doesn’t spread any more!”

Chamberlain said the complex where many Venezuelan immigrants have ended up living was poorly managed. But he also faulted the federal government for not doing more to respond to the wave of immigrants from the country that have ended up in cities such as Aurora.

“We are now in the process, as many other cities throughout this nation, of trying to pick up the pieces of an incredibly bad system that was in place,” he said.

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This story has been corrected to show the victims of the attack were released early Tuesday, not early Wednesday.