Two teenagers were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the drive-by shooting death of 19-year-old Dacien Salazar outside Denver’s Downtown Aquarium in February.
Antonio Vasquez, 19, and Jason Trujillo Jr., 17, were arrested May 1 and charged with first-degree murder, three counts of first-degree attempted murder and three sentence-enhancing counts for violent crime, according to court records.
Vasquez and Trujillo were identified as suspects through a months-long police investigation involving gang-related social media threats, surveillance video, ballistic reports and cellphone location data, according to a redacted arrest affidavit.
Salazar and two friends drove from Pueblo to Denver on Feb. 14 to visit the aquarium at 700 Water St.
As the group left the aquarium about 3 p.m., a black sedan pulled up, and a person in the back seat wearing a black mask started shooting at them, witnesses told police.
Salazar was struck multiple times and taken to Denver Health medical center, where he was pronounced dead. The two other people were not hurt in the shooting.
Friends of Salazar told police he “had a lot of people that were after him” and shared screenshots of gang members threatening him on Facebook, including threats from Trujillo, according to the affidavit.
Police redacted the name of the gang, the threats toward Salazar and details of a related shooting in Pueblo from the affidavit.
Investigators identified the car used in the drive-by shooting, a 2014 Chevy Malibu, and a temporary license plate through surveillance video in the area and connected it to Vasquez, who lives in Pueblo.
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Detectives also obtained search warrants for cellphones with Pueblo area codes near the aquarium at the time of the shooting and found an unlisted number that they also connected to Vasquez.
Police then used license-plate reader data to track the car to a hotel at a redacted location and found surveillance video of two men leaving the hotel shortly before the shooting, one of whom was carrying a mask.
Vasquez’s phone also left the hotel at that time and traveled to the aquarium, then to Colorado Springs and back to the hotel, according to the affidavit.
Trujillo was identified through an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers and on the hotel surveillance video by a Pueblo police detective.
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