Family finds fallen bullets in their roof deck twice in 2 years

DENVER (KDVR) — A Denver family is warning others after discovering fallen bullets in their condominium deck twice in two years.

In a walkable Washington Park neighborhood friendly to people and puppies, Sean Wilkinson and his small dog Gaston had a safety scare where they least expected it.

“I went on the roof deck again and saw this odd hole in our metal table,” Wilkinson said. “Then I started looking around and just saw another bullet on the ground.”

Pictures capture what Wilkinson found in his deck, Gaston’s favorite spot to hang out. This is the second time he’s found a bullet on his deck in two years.

“It kind of goes from a confusion to a fear emotion pretty quick,” Wilkinson said. “A bullet that’s falling from the sky is not something you can plan for. It could hit you or a loved one, your pet.”

As police investigate what happened in this case, Wilkinson took officers’ advice and warned neighbors, attracting many responses.

“I mean, it’s crazy from the stories of people saying this has happened to them or this has happened to a friend,” Wilkinson said. “People should definitely be much more cautious when they’re thinking about doing something like that, because maybe it might seem like a fun little gag that’s not going to hurt anybody. But what goes up must come down, right? You know, at some point people are going to get hurt and have been hurt by this kind of activity.”

Denver police chief: Call when you hear gunshots

Users posting about the issue brought up the term celebratory gunfire, something FOX31 spoke with Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas about.

“What comes up must come down, but it actually comes down at quite the same rate that it went up,” Thomas said. “We see it go through roofs, we see it go through patios, we see it go through windows.”

Thomas said the dangerous act is something police want more people to be aware of and to report it when gunfire is heard nearby.

“80 or 85 percent of those ShotSpotter alerts that we receive have no corresponding 911 call, so that means somebody didn’t call the police when that gunshot was fired,” Thomas said. “It tells us that maybe there’s some apathy there.

“There’s some, you know, some belief that maybe the cops don’t care or can’t do anything. And nothing could be further from the truth. We absolutely do care. We want to respond, recover evidence, conduct an investigation, see if we can hold someone accountable for that.”

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