Hosnah Safi has watched car jackings from her apartment window and wished for the peaceful nights the pandemic brought to downtown Denver. Saturday’s mass shooting, when a female suspect allegedly opened fire on a bar crowd, injuring five people, was the last straw for Safi.

On Tuesday, she attended her first meeting of a self-propelled group of downtown Denver residents and business owners who said they want to take back their city.

“Between the gun violence and gangs and the homeless, we can’t even walk our dogs after the sun has set,” Safi said.

The group, which includes The Ballpark Collective, the LoDo Neighborhood Association, Riot Hospitality Group and downtown residents, has been meeting with Denver police and city leaders for over a year in hopes of cleaning things up.

But Saturday’s shooting added a new urgency to an already tenuous situation.

“Clearly changes need to be made because we can’t go on like this,” Lissa Druss, spokesperson for Riot Hospitality, which owns and operates Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row said.

Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Denver, located at 1946 Market Street, is the bar where Saturday night’s shooting happened outside on the sidewalk.

There have been no arrests in the case, but Denver police are looking for a young woman with long dark hair who was caught with a gun on surveillance video.

“What we’ve seen transpired in the area is disappointing and very scary,” Druss said.

During Tuesday’s gathering, the self-described “organic, grassroots” group met and discussed what kind of power they actually have in order to create a safer downtown. Ideas included the possibility of increased police presence, more lighting and “tools to give law enforcement and the city the ability to eradicate criminal activity,” Druss said, adding that “asking the city for urgent help is paramount.”

The impetus for the group meetings started shortly after a LoDo shooting in July last year, when a Denver patrol officer shot and injured seven people, including six bystanders who were directly behind a suspect as the bars were letting out. The chaotic scene unfolded in a crowded area where people were gathering around a food truck at 20th and Market streets.

The street corner has become a hot spot for after-hours criminal activity.

It is also the area where Saturday’s shooting outside of Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row occurred, and the same location where another shooting happened following raucous celebrations after the Denver Nuggets secured the NBA Championship, when 10 people were shot in the area of 20th and Market, including a suspect, just after midnight on June 13.

In all three incidents, 22 people who suffered from gunshot wounds survived.

Denver police data shows that, from Jan. 1 through Sept. 16 this year, officers have responded to 57 shootings in the area, which includes the River North Art District (RiNo) to the north, and Lower Downtown and Union Station to the south.

Denver police told The Denver Gazette that the force has added additional resources on weekends and “will continue evaluating this incident and other trends to determine how and where to best deploy the officers.”

The Downtown Denver Partnership, which operates the downtown business improvement district, has the issue front and center.

“A safe downtown — no matter the hour of the day — is critical, and working with our partners at the Denver Police Department and the city to address crime in our center city continues to be one of our top priorities,” the group said in an email. “There is no tolerance for gun violence in downtown Denver or anywhere in our community and we support swift action by the Denver Police Department, as well as Mayor Johnston’s proposed investments in safety across our city.”

Mayor Mike Johnston’s 2024 budget includes plans to spend $58 million on “downtown reactivation.” The funds are earmarked for completing 16th Street Mall upgrades and helping businesses there, as well as improving the Convention Center and public transit. While there was no specific mention of crime-reduction spending for downtown Denver, the mayor’s budget allocates $8 million to attract nearly 200 recruits next year, part of nearly $25 million in public safety spending.

Safi, the downtown Denver resident, said that she can’t afford to move from her apartment, and besides, she likes it.

For the first time in her 33 years, she’s even thought about learning to use a gun, she said.

“This has become so common that people have become desensitized to it. Oh, a shooting downtown, what’s new? That’s not a normal reaction to five people getting shot for no reason,” Safi said.