Surge In Youth Gun Violence In Denver, Could Coronavirus Be Partially To Blame?

DENVER (CBS4) – A shooting at a house party Saturday in Denver has left one young man dead and another injured. It’s the fifth young person in Denver to lose their life to gun violence in 6 days.

Since July 6, five 20-year-olds or younger have lost their lives to gun violence. It’s a shocking rise in crime that has left youth across the Denver metro area in disbelief.

“Tayvion, he was my little cousin,” said Lumumba Sayers, Jr.

Sayers, a young man himself, knows a few of the recent victims of gun violence. Tayvion Washington, 19, Sayers’ cousin, was shot and killed on July 6 around 12:45 a.m. in North Park Hill.

“Just him graduating high school and getting killed afterword it’s like … it’s draining. It hurts a lot. He really wasn’t that type of person to be out like that,” said Sayers.

Sayers’ father Lumumba Sayers helps run a youth advocacy program called Heavy Hands Heavy Hearts. The community center uses boxing as a way to reach youth. Following a fifth death Saturday, Sayers reached out to his father to see what he and his peers could do.

His father believes the coronavirus pandemic played a role in the increase in violence. Especially because programs like Heavy Hands Heavy Hearts had to temporarily close.

“They were able to bring the youth together to be able to squash some of their beefs that were going on in the city and when COVID hit, we had to stop everything they were doing,” said Lumumba Sayers.

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