Family of downtown Denver stabbing victim advocate for solutions for a safer city
The family of one of the two victims killed in last weekend's series of stabbings in the 16th Street Mall area of downtown Denver says he struggled with mental health and was living on the street. Still, she never could have imagined something like this would happen to him.
It's images from Nicholas Burkett's childhood that remind Carol Cortez and Wayne Burkett of a time where all their son had to worry about was being a kid.
"Always a hyper fun kid. He always was busy doing something or trying to be. He always loved the spotlight," said Carol. "He's not an angel, but, you know, he was my baby."
Nicholas was a young boy who loved art, music and hanging with his sister, but his struggles with mental illness took over as he got older. Eventually, he landed in jail, became addicted to drugs and wound up on the streets of downtown Denver.
"He wasn't a threat to anyone by any means, and he was frail from the drug abuse," said Wayne.
"I was 17 when I had him. So, we struggled as young parents getting through it," said Carol. "I was hoping he would be looking to get clean soon and he would get that chance."
The Arvada family say this chance was taken away from Nicholas when the 34 year old was stabbed and killed by a suspect police have identified as 24-year-old Elijah Caudill. It was one of three stabbings police say Caudill was responsible for on Saturday and Sunday.
"It's really shocking. The best way I can describe it is it feels like a weird fever dream, and you don't know how to process," said Maxine Burkett, Nicholas' younger sister. "You kind of just go through the motions, I guess."
"I mean, I assumed he had OD,'d" said Carol. "I was kind of preparing myself for that for a while."
Though, nothing could have prepared them for their son becoming the victim of a homicide.
"What this has deprived us of is the ability to make anything up to him in the future or to ever apologize for anything we might have done," said Wayne. "We couldn't. We can't right the wrongs now he's gone."
Nicholas' family say they feel for the other victims hurt and killed during this violent spree. The other person who was killed was 71-year-old Celinda Levno.
"This shouldn't even happen. This should never happen," said Carol.
They say there needs to be changes in the community that better address mental health and homelessness while preventing crimes like this from happening to anyone.
"See some kind of a better way to manage the homeless people instead of just providing them with shooting galleries and places to put their tents," said Wayne. "They're not throw away people. Their lives matter, and we care about them."
The Burketts are crowdfunding to help financially support their son's funeral, and they are also advocating for a safer Denver and justice for all the families impacted from the weekend.
