It happend at 11th and Speer. Speer Boulevard is a through street that runs along the west side of downtown Denver. It runs by the Pepsi Center. Mostly businesses and some lofts, as well as the Auraria campus line the 4 lane boulevard. As far as I know it's not a high crime area.
Speer makes a bit of a difference--but it's still not the best of neighborhoods, although it's not nearly as bad as say, East Colfax.
Needless to say, now that I'm older/wiser I don't know if I'd want to be hanging around LoDo (lower downtown) if I could help it.
My mother used to live on 12th and Pearl--some parts of Capitol Hill area having a bit of a renaissance, some parts Sadr City slum.
Then again, I haven't lived there in almost 15 years, and haven't visited there since I last saw my mother last year (I can say that now, can't I, since it was in 2006?)
It was where he was before 11th & Speer that was the problem.
Wow. Must be scary for folks who would normally feel safe in downtown.