Susan Baffour, a 63-year-old woman from Denver, pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse, a Class 2 Felony, on Oct. 16 — a plea deal that dropped the charge of first-degree murder from her case, according to the district court case file.

On Nov. 27, Denver District Judge Alex Myers sentenced Baffour to 36 years in prison, 5 years of mandatory parole and $1,928.50 in monetary fines. Myers could have sentenced Baffour to a maximum 48 years in prison.

“Dametrious Wilson’s death was a terrible tragedy for his family and friends and for the entire City of Denver,” District Attorney Beth McCann said in an emailed statement. “This sentence all but ensures that Susan Baffour will never be able to hurt anyone again. I want to thank the prosecutors and investigators in my office, as well as the detectives with the Denver Police Department, whose hard work on the case brought about this successful resolution.”

Just before 8:30 a.m. on June 3, 2022, Denver police officers responded to an apartment in the 1900 block of North Ulster Street, where 8-year-old Dametrious Wilson was found unconscious after Baffour beat him with a wooden back scrubber the night before.

According to the arrest affidavit, Baffour wanted to discipline Wilson for tearing part of her couch.

After taking him with her to Home Depot to get supplies, Baffour used duct tape to bind Wilson’s arms and legs together and cover his mouth before hitting him more than 40 times with the back scrubber, the affidavit stated.

Baffour told police she treated Wilson’s injuries before bed, and he drank a glass of water overnight, the affidavit stated. When she checked on him around 8 a.m., he would not wake up and she attempted to give CPR compressions.

At 8:41 a.m., paramedics pronounced Wilson dead at the scene.

Baffour had been awarded custody over Wilson and his now-11-year-old sister in 2017 because their mother was unable to care for them, according to the arrest affidavit.

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In the January 2020 evening incident, the car the woman was riding in was forced off the road in the 300 block of North Federal Boulevard, crashing into the Columbine Steak House and Lounge. Denver police officer Thomas Moen had attempted to make a right turn from the middle lane of northbound Federal in his department SUV and struck the sedan, which was in the right lane, according to a complaint filed by Tanya Martinez Perez’s attorney earlier this year.

The sedan was forced off the road where it collided with a parked car, crossed over the sidewalk and hit the building, coming to a stop. The complaint cites the building’s address as 300 N. Federal Blvd., which is where Columbine is located.

The complaint alleges that because Moen failed to drive safely, Martinez Perez suffered injuries to her left shoulder, arm and wrist as well as a concussion that caused post-concussion headaches.

The Denver City Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the agreement on Monday.

The Denver Police Department announced just after 10 a.m. that a woman had died of her injuries at a hospital and that they were investigating the shooting near the intersection of North Federal Boulevard and West 2nd Avenue as a homicide.

Police officers found the woman when they responded to the shooting, according to a 12:29 a.m. Monday post on X.

The woman was taken to the hospital by paramedics while officers remained at the scene for the investigation and to develop suspect information, the department’s post stated.

Detectives also learned another victim went to the hospital on their own. That person’s injuries are not clear, and details about their identity, including their age and gender, were not available.

Anyone with information should contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or file an anonymous report online.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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The crash happened in the area of East Colfax Avenue and Elm Street, the Denver Police Department posted on social media at 3:44 p.m. Sunday.

Police did not specify the number or type of vehicles involved in the crash, or which party was sent to the hospital.

Drivers should expect delays in the area and take alternate routes if possible.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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The arrests were the result of two law enforcement investigations conducted by the Denver District Attorney’s Office, Denver Police Department, Aurora Police Department, FBI, ATF, the Regional Anti-Violence Enforcement Network and the Violent Criminal Enterprise Task Force, according to a district attorney’s office news release.

“These arrests send an unmistakable message that law enforcement agencies throughout the Denver metro area are committed to working together to disrupt and disband dangerous criminal organizations. The streets of Denver are safer today because of these two investigations and I am grateful to the many law enforcement officers who have worked so hard on these cases to get us to this point,” McCann said.

About $780,000 of cash and property were stolen, and the members also now face charges of aggravated robbery, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms and violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act.

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Denver Police Department officials discussed details of the Nov. 26 incident during a news conference at police headquarters Thursday.

Officers responded to Fusion Studios at 3737 Quebec St. at 9:20 a.m. on reports from a pretrial services employee that Jesse Stowers, 43, was in the area and had tampered with his ankle monitor.

Stowers had a court order barring him from the apartment complex and officers found his ankle monitor in an alleyway outside, Cmdr. Matt Clark said at the news conference Thursday.

Body camera footage shows police forced open a bathroom door where it appeared Stowers was flushing drugs down the toilet or sink, according to body camera footage and Clark.

Officers arrested Stowers and walked him outside, repeatedly asking him if he had used drugs. Stowers was also examined by paramedics before he was transported to the jail, Clark said.

While Stowers was in the back of a police car being transported he began having a medical event, Clark said.

Body camera footage shows officers removed Stowers from the vehicle near 29th and Champa streets, and he leaned against an officer and then a police car while he appeared to be shaking and struggling to breathe.

Officers repeatedly asked him what he took so they could get him medical help, but he did not respond, according to the footage.

The officers lowered him to the ground and administered naloxone, which is used to treat opioid overdoses, which did not appear to have an impact, Clark said. Stowers stopped breathing, and officers removed his handcuffs and started CPR.

He was transported to the hospital and pronounced dead later that day, Clark said.

The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner is investigating the cause and nature of Stowers’ death, but preliminary information shows narcotics may have been a factor, Clark said. Toxicology reports are still pending in the case.

The officers involved have returned to normal duty, Clark said.

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The 32-year-old man was shot twice by police and has since been released from the hospital, Cmdr. Matt Clark said at a Thursday news conference intended to update the public on the investigation. The man is charged with unlawfully carrying a firearm and carrying a prohibited high-capacity magazine.

Police were patrolling the Cedar Run apartment complex at 888 South Oneida St. at 1:40 p.m. on Nov. 27 when they noticed the man moving boxes outside of his vehicle and saw he had a handgun between his belt and pants on the back side of his waistband, Clark said.

Loud music can be heard blaring from a black truck in body-worn camera footage as officers ordered the man to put his hands on his head and get on his knees.

Officers told the man it’s illegal to open carry in Denver as they ordered him to put his hands on his head, according to the footage.

The man refused to comply and told officers he didn’t “want to live in this world” and that they “have no idea how bad it is.”

The man also told officers he doesn’t trust them because he’s been betrayed by cops before.

Officers repeatedly told the man they didn’t want to shoot him and to comply so they could take his gun and be done with it, according to the footage.

Approximately five minutes into the encounter, the man appeared to reach for something behind his back and two officers fired at him five times, causing him to fall to the ground. Officers handcuffed him and began medical aid, according to the footage and Clark.

The man was shot in the upper neck and had a graze wound to his arm, Clark said. Police recovered a Glock 17 9mm handgun loaded with 17 bullets from the scene. Colorado law prohibits magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.

Police Chief Ron Thomas said Thursday he was pleased with how the officers reacted to the situation.

“I think they took a significant amount of time to de-escalate that situation,” Thomas said. “I don’t believe any officer wanted to fire in this particular case.”

The officers who fired their guns have been placed on modified duty while they undergo a department reintegration program, Clark said.

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More than 200 members of the activist organization marched from the Tivoli Quad on Auraria Campus to the intersection of Speer Boulevard and Champa Street around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, humanitarian aid and an end to U.S. aid to Israel, according to a Sunday news release from Jewish Voice for Peace.

The rally came just after the end of the one-week cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and nearly two months after the conflict first started, with Hamas militants attacking several areas in Israel, killing over 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages, according to Israeli officials.

As of Sunday, more than 15,500 people had been confirmed killed in Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The ministry told AP reporters that 70% of those killed are women and children.

“As Jews, we wholeheartedly reject violence against the Palestinian people in the name of Jewish safety,” stated Allie Cannington, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, in the news release.

The group parked a car in the intersection, and a small group of activists chained themselves to each other and to the parked vehicle with duct-taped tubes and metal wire, blocking traffic.

Police diverted traffic away from the intersection for more than an hour before 15 people were arrested by Denver officers, according to the Denver Police Department. All 15 had been released by Sunday evening, according to a news release from Jewish Voice for Peace.

A spokesperson for the police department wrote in an emailed statement that officers made three separate announcements over a public address system for the people to leave the roadway or face arrest. When they refused to move, officers started arresting individuals around 12:40 p.m.

Denver Fire Department personnel used power tools to safely separate the individuals from each other and the vehicle so they could be arrested, according to the police department’s statement.

Several protesters in the activist organization’s news release claimed this action unnecessarily endangered the demonstrators, and that the emergency responders should have used manual tools instead of electric saws.

A total of 15 people were arrested in connection with obstructing a street, failure to obey a police order and using prohibited equipment to obstruct the public’s and emergency crews’ ability to use the roadway, the police department said in its statement.

The Denver/Boulder chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace organized the protest alongside the Colorado Palestine Coalition, marking the fourth consecutive day of protests against the Jewish National Fund’s Global Conference For Israel.

Noah Perlmutter, a Jewish American member of the group and one of the 15 arrested, said he joined the protest to bring attention to the violence that Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank are subjected to every day.

“I hope our peaceful protest pushes our representatives to immediately address the dire humanitarian crisis happening right now in Gaza,” he said. “We need a lasting ceasefire and a pathway to peace.”

Jewish Voice For Peace has organized several Denver protests for Palestinian lives in recent months, including demonstrations at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, and has put pressure on Colorado’s congressional representatives to publicly call for a cease-fire.

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Denver police responded to the shooting on Thursday, according to a DPD post at 6:46 p.m. on X. One man was found at the scene, and Denver police reported he had died as of 12:47 p.m. Friday.

The shooting is being investigated as a homicide, and investigators are working to develop information about a suspect.

Anyone with information about the incident can call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.

This is a developing story. 

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The crash closed Federal Boulevard in both directions on Thursday afternoon, according to a post from Denver on X at 12:18 p.m. The driver remained on scene.

Police officials were unable to confirm the type of vehicle involved in the crash.

Alternate routes are advised, according to the department. A Denver Post reporter traveling in the area reported a police officer is stationed at West 8th Avenue, directing traffic to detour at that point.

The pedestrian’s identity will be released by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner. The cause of the crash is under investigation, Denver police said Thursday.

This is a developing story. 

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