Daniel Lee Buckmaster, 35, a male from Denver, was found shot in the parking lot of The Villas apartment complex at 2054 West 76th Avenue in unincorporated Adams County in the early morning hours of September 14, 2021. Deputies responded around 2:14 a.m. to reports of an adult male with a gunshot wound; they found Buckmaster unconscious, with a wound to his torso, and rendered aid before he was transported by EMS to a Denver hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Detectives processed the scene and canvassed the complex, interviewing witnesses and neighbors and reviewing electronic and physical evidence to reconstruct the moments leading up to the shooting. The Sheriff's Office described a swift, multi-agency effort that included members of its Crime Scene and Laboratory Team, ultimately developing leads that pointed to a suspect vehicle.
Within a week, the investigation broke open. On September 20, 2021, Lakewood Police officers located and stopped the vehicle described in the Sheriff's Office bulletin. Two people were detained that day and, on September 21, were arrested in connection with Buckmaster's killing; they were booked into the Adams County Detention Facility while prosecutors reviewed multiple felony charges. Local outlets reported the arrests as detectives continued their work, noting that authorities had not publicly released the suspects' identities at that time.
Public remembrances later confirmed Buckmaster's full name and age, aligning with family notices that marked his death on September 14, 2021. Those notices, along with memorial listings, situate him in Denver and underscore the abruptness of his loss, even as the criminal case progressed in the weeks immediately after the shooting.
