Jonathan Blazon

The day after Christmas in 2022 brought a violent and tragic end to the life of Jonathan Blazon in Denver, Colorado. The 23-year-old became a victim of gun violence on December 26, in an incident that began near a local park and concluded miles away. Jonathan Blazon was a White/Caucasian male.

On that Monday afternoon, the Denver Police Department received a call reporting that a person had been shot near Berkeley Lake Park, in the vicinity of West 46th Avenue and Tennyson Street. The caller stated that the victim was put into a car, which then drove away from the scene. As officers investigated, a second call came in about a shooting victim who had been found near Andrews Drive and Dillon Street. Police responded and found a man, later identified as Blazon, unconscious and bleeding from the head. He was pronounced deceased at the scene. The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner would later confirm that his cause of death was gunshot wounds and ruled the manner of death a homicide.

Investigators pieced together the events with help from a witness who was in the car with Blazon and the alleged shooter. According to an arrest affidavit, the witness told police that he and Blazon had picked up a man named Piria from his house. After they drove to the park, the witness saw Piria shoot Blazon multiple times. The witness stated that Blazon did not appear to be doing anything threatening before he was shot.

A few days after the shooting, a 22-year-old suspect identified as Piria turned himself in to the Denver Police Department. He was arrested in connection with Jonathan Blazon’s death and taken into custody.

Piria was held at the Downtown Detention Center on suspicion of first-degree murder. As of late December 2022, the case was proceeding through the legal system following the suspect's arrest.