A Denver jury convicted a 23-year-old man on Thursday morning of first-degree murder in the 2022 shooting death of a beloved mother and community leader in the East Colfax neighborhood.
Lu Reh also was convicted on multiple counts of attempted murder in the July 15, 2022, murder of Ma Kaing, who immigrated to Denver from Myanmar, also known as Burma, with her family and who was finding success in her new home. Reh faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 2.
Kaing was struck by a bullet just before 11:30 p.m. on July 15, 2022, as she and her family were unloading food from their catering business outside the Hidden Brook Apartments at 1313 Xenia St. They had just begun carrying pans of dessert inside their apartment when a stray bullet from a gunfight across the street struck Kaing.
Her oldest son, Kyaw Oo, held his mother in his arms while his younger sister called 911. Kaing died on the sidewalk with her children watching.
The shooting led to outrage in the East Colfax community with friends and residents begging the Denver Police Department and city officials to do something about crime in the neighborhood. Kaing’s death also resulted in changes in how cell phone companies route 911 calls after calls from the shooting scene went to Aurora’s communications center rather than Denver’s. The calls had to be rerouted, which led to questions about whether Kaing would have survived if the emergency response was faster.
Kaing arrived in Denver in 2007 with her husband and her oldest son and daughter. She and her husband had two more sons after they came to the city. Their dream was to open a restaurant and buy a house for the family.
The family had opened Taw Win, a restaurant that sold Burmese and Thai food, just weeks before the shooting. The family worked late on the night of the shooting to fill a catering order. At the time, Kyaw Oo said his family’s goal of buying a house was in sight.
Kaing was known in her apartment building for helping other immigrants assimilate to Denver. She served on the East Colfax Neighborhood Association’s board of directors, volunteered at a neighborhood food bank and kept a garden next to her apartment, from which she shared vegetables.
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Two other men — Nu La and Swa Bay — pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder for their roles in Kaing’s murder. A fourth man, 20-year-old Pa Reh, is scheduled for trial in July.
Lu Reh also is scheduled to stand trial for first-degree murder in March in Adams County District Court in connection with the May 2022 killing of 44-year-old Aurora resident Ricardo Ryans. Ryans was found dead in an alley between Willow and Xanthia streets on the Aurora side of the East Colfax neighborhood.
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