DENVER — A Denver shop owner is growing concerned about the uptick in violence after a double shooting suspect was arrested inside his store Friday.
Police identified on Saturday the suspect arrested after the deadly double shooting near N. Broadway and W. 3rd Avenue.
Derron Harris, 30, was arrested inside Baker Wine & Spirits on Broadway shortly after the shooting that left one man dead and a woman in critical condition.
What struck Tim Martin—one of the owners of Baker Wine & Spirits—was just how fast it all happened, and in broad daylight.
“He just walked in,” Martin said, recounting the moments Harris entered his store. “I was just kind of finishing up what I was doing, just so I could go help him… He made a U-turn at our beer coolers, and the cops were in. I mean, it was very fast.
“If he did what they say he did, I mean, this is evil,” Martin added.
It was just after 1 p.m., mere minutes after police responded to the shooting in the parking lot of an Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Police confirmed the two people shot were Enterprise customers.
After the shooting, Harris is seen on surveillance video walking down the street and entering Baker Wine & Spirits.
Martin remarked on how “calm” Harris appeared as he walked the length of the store. Martin thought he was going to buy something—until, about ten seconds later, several police officers entered with their guns drawn.
Harris immediately put his hands above his head and surrendered.
“I have to commend them,” Martin said of the officers. “I know, it’s a hard, embattled thing to do right now. But they were swift. They took him peacefully.”
Martin is getting numb to the violence and the crime around him. He hates that he feels this way, that traumatic incidents are starting to feel normal.
It was just down the road from his shop that two women were killed in a tattoo parlor during a shooting spree in December.
“It’s hard to deny that it is happening with more frequency,” Martin said. “And what the answer to that is, I don’t know.”
He does know, he said, that change is needed and that it will take the entire community.
“I don’t want this to define us,” he said. “We’re better than that. This community is amazing. We can keep getting better.”
Denver Police is still investigating this shooting and is asking anyone with information to call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.
