A 40-year-old Colorado Springs man has been identified as the victim of a Halloween night shooting that left him dead in the 400 block of North Union Boulevard, and police say the man suspected of killing him is now behind bars. Brody McDowell was shot around 7 p.m. on October 31 in an area that would have still been busy with trick-or-treaters and holiday foot traffic.
Colorado Springs police identified the victim as Brody McDowell, a 40-year-old Colorado Springs resident, according to KOAA. Officers responding to the scene found McDowell suffering from gunshot wounds, and he was pronounced dead there, as KKTV reported. A separate account from krdo.com similarly described law enforcement arriving to find a dead adult male who had been shot.
Police named 27-year-old Davijo Velarde as the suspect in the killing.
Part of a Broader Drop in Homicides
Police noted that McDowell's death marked the city's 12th homicide of 2026, a steep drop from the 29 homicides recorded at the same point in 2025, per the koaa.com report. That decline tracks with a trend Colorado Springs officials have been highlighting for months. Mayor Yemi Mobolade and Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said the city saw a 28% decline in homicides in 2025, according to the station's reporting.
The downward trend has continued into this year. A Council on Criminal Justice report found that Colorado Springs homicides fell by more than 50% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, as reported by KRDO. City officials have attributed the shift to a mix of factors, telling KRDO it could reflect “the use of technology as a force multiplier, improved response times and strategic deployment of its officers.”
A Separate Halloween Shooting Across Town
McDowell's killing was not the only Halloween-night shooting in Colorado Springs. In a separate incident, witnesses told police that two women were involved in a physical altercation before one of them shot the other, according to The Gazette. Police arrested 27-year-old Kiara Lewis in connection with that shooting; she faces multiple charges including felony assault, reckless endangerment and child abuse, per the Gazette’s report.
North Union Boulevard has seen gun violence before. In a separate shooting earlier this year, officers responded to the corridor near East Willamette Street around 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, and found one person injured, according to FOX21 News. It remains unclear whether that earlier shooting is connected in any way to the Halloween night case involving McDowell.
Anyone with information about the McDowell shooting is asked to call Colorado Springs police at (719) 444-7000. Tips can also be submitted anonymously to Crime Stoppers at (719) 634-STOP (7867) or 1-800-222-8477.
