DENVER (KDVR) – In an unusual move, the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance will close early Saturday due to safety concerns.
“The Denver Police Department made us aware of an event happening tomorrow afternoon in City Park, which is being referred to as the ‘City Park takeover, ’” zoo spokesman Jake Kubie said.
After guilty plea, Denver gang leader sentenced to 33 years in prisonThe zoo plans to open at 7:30 a.m., which is earlier than normal. It will close at 1 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.
“We’re an 80-acre campus right in the middle of City Park, right in the middle of Denver, with almost two million visitors each year, 2,500 wild animals. Safety is our top priority,” Kubie said. “Hopefully, this is just an overreaction.”
Last weekend, though, a group of about 300 teenagers showed up to fight at the shops at Northfield in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood. Witnesses described the scene as “chaos."
According to Denver police, it appears the juveniles who organized that event are also behind a series of social media posts inviting teenagers to fight at popular metro area locations throughout the summer.
“I think the biggest takeaway is that these things can become very large very quickly and kind of evolve quickly. And we’ve known that from things in the past, but it was a little bigger than we thought it would be,” Denver Police Division Chief of Operations Rick Kyle said.
Kyle said DPD is dedicating a “significant” amount of resources to keep City Park safe on Saturday. The department will have investigative teams monitoring social media posts and an increased presence within City Park throughout the day.
“Depending on what happens, it is a potential to be arrested and go into the court system for assaults, serious property damage and that type of thing. Our preference is not to arrest people, but if it escalates to that level,l then maybe in consequence it happens,” Kyle said.
The Aurora Police Department is also planning to increase patrols at the Town Center at Aurora Mall due to a post about a takeover at that location in July.
“We have a lot of people that come to the Town Center of Aurora just for shopping, for eating, things like that, and we want to make sure that they feel safe,” APD Agent Matthew Longshore said.
The department is also working on ways to keep the teens involved in the gathering safe.
“We had a homicide a couple weeks ago as it related to a group of kids gathering to fight. Even though the fliers we’ve seen say no weapons, come to fight, that clearly wasn’t the case with a homicide. We arrested a 14-year-old down in Colorado Springs responsible for this murder,” Longshore said.
According to DPD, other cities across the country are also seeing teen takeovers and fight clubs spurred by social media posts.
New area code soon to include these Colorado areas“Kids are off school right now. They don’t have as many commitments for their time. Maybe looking for things to do. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is a positive thing,” Kyle said.
The Denver Police Department is asking anyone who sees social media posts encouraging youth violence or takeovers to report the suspicious activity to police.
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