Drugs, fires, homicides: North Pueblo business owner fed up with criminal activity along Hwy 50
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- Business owners along the Highway 50 corridor on the north side of Pueblo say increased amounts of criminal activity are hurting their bottom line and not helping to paint Pueblo in the best light.
Brett Boston is co-owner of the Southwest Grill along Club Manor Dr., right off of the Highway 50 interchange. Boston tells KRDO 13 Investigates he has noticed a considerable drop in business revenue connected to the amounts of drugs, fires, and murders that are happening around his restaurant.
"There's people shooting up in the corners all the time, smoking fentanyl. If you drive by here after we close at 2:00 PM, it's zombie land out here. There's so many people around here using drugs and leaving their stuff behind," Boston said.
Boston provided KRDO 13 Investigates with images that he took on his phone from just this weekend showing left over drug residue in and around his business. He says it clearly wasn't left from one of his paying customers.
Boston says he believes the prolific criminal activity in the area is directly linked to where unhoused, transient people are living, the Roadway Inn.
The Roadway Inn is located directly behind Boston's business, and he says his attempts to address his concerns with the Roadway Inn's owners haven't been very productive.
"There's nothing I can seem to do about it. I try to run these people off, try to create a good atmosphere for my customers and employees to feel safe," Boston said. "However, there's only so much I can do. These people, there's no repercussions for their actions. So they continually come back."
On December 6, Pueblo Police officers flooded the Roadway Inn back parking lot after someone reported a shooting there. Inside, they found one person murdered and another wounded. After this occurred, Boston found a review left for his business that stated it was no longer safe to dine at his restaurant because murders were happening at the business behind his.
"I've had several people come in and tell me they won't come back because of what happens outside and something just needs to be done about it," Boston said.
The small business owners brought his concerns to the Pueblo City Council on Monday. He provided them a packet full of pictures as evidence of ongoing drug activity, unwanted fires, and violence taking place in and around his business.
Multiple City Council members stated they feel for him and are working to address the problem. Pueblo Police tells KRDO 13 Investigates they too are focusing heavily on this area, and have collected to data to prove it needs to be an area where their presence is felt.
Pueblo Police shared data with KRDO 13 Investigates that shows they've responded to 3,157 calls for service in and around the Highway 50 area since June, 2023. On 840 of those calls, officers took a report of someone suspected of committing a felony crime, with 831 suspected of a comitting a misdemeanor crime. 30% of these calls were initiated by the officers, meaning there was never a 911 call alerting them to potential criminal activity taking place.
On 265 of those calls, their DICE team was deployed.
They are deploying their DICE team officers to the area on a more frequent basis, specifically targeting lower-level criminal activity in hopes of deterring higher-level crime. They have placed multiple cameras in and around the Roadway Inn to have video evidence of a crime if it does occur.
Boston is now searching for more "proactive solutions," ones that can help beautify the Highway 50 corridor area, which is a heavily trafficked area by people who are new to the Steel City.
"I'm trying to bring as much awareness and attention to this issue as I can, so that we can help create some change, and Pueblo can make itself feel more 'Pueblo proud' like we used to, because if we continue down this path, it'll be hard to fix it," Boston said.
