Three Charged in Denver Death of Homeless Man
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DENVER — Three men were charged with first-degree murder Friday in one of a series of brutal beating deaths of homeless men.
The five killings and several near-fatal beatings had sent a wave of fear through the downtown area’s large homeless community. The Denver Rescue Mission was overwhelmed by homeless men seeking a safe place to sleep.
The three defendants, one of whom is 16, are members of a clique police call “mall rats,” who hang out around a small park in the busy 16th Street Pedestrian Mall. Five other so-called mall rats are in jail on assault charges.
“The arrests are going to make homeless people feel safer,” said Del Maxfield, chief executive officer of the Denver Rescue Mission.
Murder charges were filed by Dist. Atty. Bill Ritter in the death of one of the homeless men, Melvin Washington. He was attacked Sept. 9 and died a week later.
The defendants are Thomas Holden, 18, already in custody on assault charges from other attacks; Nathan Harrison, 20, who is in jail in San Francisco on unrelated charges as well as assault charges in Denver; and Christopher Ball, 16, in jail on assault charges in the Denver beatings.
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