Colorado generally has an elevated crime rate compared to national averages, but its ranking for specificallyshooting-related crimes is closer to the middle nationally. The state's overallviolent crime rate, however, is a primary concern, placing it among the highest in the U.S..
Capital punishment is not applied in this state.[7]
Two of the country's largestmass shootings have occurred in Colorado: theColumbine High School massacre in 1999 and theAurora movie theater massacre in 2012. Other notable mass shootings in Colorado include theColorado YWAM and New Life shootings in 2007, theColorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting in 2015, theNational Western Complex shootout inDenver in 2016, the2021 Boulder shooting, the2021 Colorado Springs shooting, and most recently theColorado Springs nightclub shooting in 2022.[citation needed]
| Incident | Category | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbine High School massacre | Mass shooting | 1999-04-20 | TheColumbine High School massacre was aschool shooting and attemptedbombing that occurred atColumbine High School inColumbine, Colorado, United States, on April 20, 1999. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade studentsEric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 13 students and one teacher; ten were killed in the school library, where Harris and Klebold subsequently died bysuicide. |
| 2006 Platte Canyon High School hostage crisis | Mass shooting | 2006-09-27 | ThePlatte Canyon High School hostage crisis was a hostage taking and shooting atPlatte Canyon High School inBailey, Colorado, on September 27, 2006. The gunman, 53-year-old Duane Roger Morrison, took seven female students hostage and sexually assaulted them, later releasing four. When police broke open the classroom's door with explosives, Morrison opened fire with asemi-automatic pistol before shooting hostage Emily Keyes in the head. |
| STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting | Mass shooting | 2019-05-07 | On May 7, 2019, aschool shooting occurred atSTEM School Highlands Ranch, acharter school located inDouglas County,Colorado,United States, in theDenver suburb ofHighlands Ranch. One student, Kendrick Castillo, was killed and eight others were injured. Two students, 16-year-old Alec McKinney and 18-year-old Devon Erickson, were convicted on dozens of charges and sentenced tolife imprisonment. |
| Evergreen High School shooting | Mass shooting | 2025-09-10 | On September 10, 2025, 16-year-old Desmond Holly, a student at the school, arrived on school premises with arevolver and opened fire inside and outside the school. Holly shot and wounded two students; no one was killed. |
| Chuck E. Cheese's massacre | Mass shooting | 1993-12-14 | On December 14, 1993, four employees were shot and killed, and a fifth employee was seriously injured at aChuck E. Cheese's (formerShowBiz Pizza Place) restaurant inAurora, Colorado, United States. The perpetrator, 19-year-old Nathan Dunlap, a former employee of the restaurant, was frustrated about being fired five months prior to the shooting and sought revenge by committing the attack. He fled the scene of the shooting with stolen money and restaurant items. |
| 2007 Colorado YWAM and New Life shootings | Shooting spree | 2007-12-09 | In the early morning hours of December 9, 2007, 24-year-old Matthew John Murray opened fire at theYouth With A Mission training center inArvada, Colorado, killing two and wounding two others before escaping. Later that afternoon, he attacked theNew Life Church inColorado Springs, Colorado, with a number of firearms, killing two more people and injuring three before being shot by Jeanne Assam, a member of the church's safety team. Murray then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. |
| 2012 Aurora theater shooting | Mass shooting | 2012-07-20 | On July 20, 2012, amass shooting occurred inside aCentury 16movie theater inAurora, Colorado, United States, during amidnight screening of the filmThe Dark Knight Rises. Dressed in tactical clothing, 24-year-oldJames Eagan Holmes set offtear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms. Twelve people, and an unborn baby, were killed and 70 others were injured, 58 of them due to gunfire. |
| Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting | Mass shooting | 2015-11-27 | On November 27, 2015, amass shooting occurred in aPlanned Parenthood clinic inColorado Springs, Colorado, resulting in the deaths of three people and injuries to nine. A police officer and two civilians were killed; five police officers and four civilians were injured. After a standoff that lasted five hours, policeSWAT teams crashed armored vehicles into the lobby and the attacker surrendered. |
| October 2015 Colorado Springs shooting | Mass shooting | 2015-10-31 | Three people were randomly shot and killed by a gunman, later identified as 33-year-old Noah Harpham, as they were walking down Prospect Street near downtown Colorado Springs. A man riding a bicycle was the first victim shot after pleading for his life, according to eyewitness reports. The gunman then turned and ran, killing two women. These women were either killed randomly as the gunman ran down the street, firing at random or sitting on a porch targeted by the gunman. The gunman was later killed in a shootout with four police officers in which he was struck once. |
| 2021 Boulder shooting | Mass shooting | 2021-03-22 | On March 22, 2021, amass shooting occurred at aKing Soopers supermarket inBoulder, Colorado, United States. Ten people were killed, including a local on-duty police officer. The shooter, 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Al-Issa, was arrested after being shot in the right leg. He was temporarily hospitalized before being moved to the county jail. After undergoing mental evaluations during the legal proceedings, Al-Issa was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in December 2021 and in April 2022. On August 23, 2023, prosecutors announced that Al-Issa was mentally competent to stand trial; a judge ruled as such on October 6 of that same year. On September 23, 2024, Al-Issa was found guilty in the shooting and sentenced tolife in prison without the possibility ofparole. |
| 2021 Denver and Lakewood shootings | Shooting spree | 2021-12-27 | On December 27, 2021, amass shooting occurred in downtownDenver and later moved toLakewood, Colorado, United States, where 47-year-old Lyndon McLeod fatally shot five people and wounded two others. McLeod was fatally shot by Lakewood Police Agent Ashley Ferris, after the two exchanged gunfire. |
| Colorado Springs nightclub shooting | Mass shooting | 2022-11-19 | On November 19–20, 2022, ananti-LGBTQ–motivatedmass shooting occurred at Club Q, agay bar inColorado Springs, Colorado, United States. Five people were killed, and twenty-five others were injured, nineteen of them by gunfire. The shooter, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, was also injured while being restrained, and was taken to a local hospital. Aldrich was then charged andremanded in custody. On June 26, 2023, Aldrich pleaded guilty to the shooting and state level charges and was officially sentenced to a total of fiveconsecutive life terms plus an additional consecutive 2,211 years, all without the possibility ofparole. On January 16, 2024, Aldrich was additionally charged with 50 federal hate crimes in connection with the shooting. On June 18, 2024, Aldrich pleaded guilty to the federal charges and was sentenced to 55 concurrent life sentences without parole, plus a consecutive 190 years. |
| Hayman Fire | Arson | 2002-06-08 | Terry Barton, a forestry technician with theUnited States Forest Service, set the fire in a campfire ring during a total burn ban triggered by aNational Weather Servicered flag warning. Barton claimed that she was attempting to burn a letter from her estranged husband. This claim was disputed by one of her teenage daughters, who testified that a psychology teacher had told Barton to write her feelings in a letter and burn it. The fire quickly spread out of control and eventually torched over 138,000 acres (560 km2) and burned across four different counties. A federal grand jury indicted Barton on four felony counts of arson. |
| Murder of Alan Berg | Domestic terrorism | 1984-06-18 | Berg was assassinated by members of thewhite supremacist groupThe Order, which believed in killing all Jews and sending all black people to Africa. Those involved in the killing were part of a group planning to kill prominent Jews such as Berg. Two of Berg's killers,David Lane and Bruce Pierce, were convicted on charges of federalcivil rights violations for killing him. They were sentenced to 190 years and 252 years in prison, respectively. |
| Watts family murders | Murder | 2018-08-13 | In the early hours of August 13, 2018, inFrederick, Colorado,Christopher Lee Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann (34) bystrangulation, and their two children Bella (4) and Celeste (3) by suffocation. He buried Shanann in a shallow grave near an oil-storage facility, and dumped his children's bodies into crude oil tanks. Watts initially maintained his innocence in his family's disappearance, but was arrested on August 15, after confessing in an interview with detectives to murdering Shanann. Months later, he also admitted to murdering his children. |
| Killing of JonBenét Ramsey | Murder | 1996-12-25 | JonBenét Patricia Ramsey (August 6, 1990 – December 25, 1996) was an American child who was killed at age six in her family's home at 755 15th Street inBoulder, Colorado, on the night of December 25, 1996. Her body was found in the house's basement about seven hours after she had been reportedmissing. She had sustained a fractured skull, and agarrote was tied around her neck. Theautopsy report stated that JonBenét's official cause of death was "asphyxia bystrangulation associated withcraniocerebral trauma". Her death was ruled ahomicide, and the case generated worldwide public and media interest. |
| Murder of Jessica Ridgeway | Murder | 2012-10-05 | Jessica Ridgeway was a 10-year-old girl fromWestminster, Colorado who was strangled to death on October 5, 2012, by then 17-year-old Austin Sigg after he abducted her while she was walking to school and took her to his bedroom. He then dismembered her body and dumped her torso inside plastic bags along a roadway where it would be found. Prior to Ridgeway's kidnapping, Sigg had attempted to abduct a woman while she was jogging on May 28, 2012, but she had escaped and reported the assault to authorities. |
| Granby 'Killdozer' Incedent | Vehicle-ramming attack | 2004-06-04 | On June 4, 2004, Heemeyer used a bulldozer to demolish the Granbytown hall, the house of a former mayor, and several other buildings. He committed suicide after the bulldozer became stuck in the debris of a hardware store he was destroying. No one else was injured or killed. |
| Diol–Beye family murders | Arson/Murder | 2020-08-05 | TheDiol–Beye family murders resulted from anarson attack that occurred on August 5, 2020, inDenver,Colorado. The attack killed five members ofSenegalese immigrant families and was perpetrated by three teenagers seeking revenge for a stolen phone, which they had mistakenly traced to the wrong address. |
| 1998 Alma rampage | Vehicle-ramming attack | 1998-02-26 | The1998 Alma rampage was a murder and vehicle-ramming attack in the small Colorado town on February 26 and 27. |
| Killing of Elijah McClain | Homicide | 2019-08-24 | Elijah Jovan McClain (February 25, 1996 – August 30, 2019) was a 23-year-oldblack American man fromAurora, Colorado, who was killed as a result of being illegally injected with 500 mg ofketamine by paramedics after being forcibly detained by police officers. He went intocardiac arrest and died six days later in the hospital. He had been walking home from a convenience store. Three police officers and two paramedics were charged with his death. Both paramedics and one of the officers were convicted of negligent homicide. The other two officers were acquitted of all charges. |
