On the evening of February 3, 2018, a shooting in the 13100 block of East Elgin Place in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood left two young men dead and a third critically injured. Seventeen-year-old Byron Ware and 18-year-old Abisai Ponce Gutierrez were later confirmed by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner to have died of gunshot wounds; their deaths were ruled homicides. One victim was taken to a hospital by ambulance, while two others, including Ware, went to a different medical facility on their own; one of those later died there.

Investigators quickly developed persons of interest. Police contacted 18-year-old Octavio Morales at a medical center and later detained Morales and 19-year-old Kylvito Garrette; both were under investigation for first-degree murder in connection with the shooting. The community held a march and a vigil where family and friends released balloons with messages to Byron. If anyone witnessed the shooting or has information about what happened that night, please come forward.