In the cool autumn night of October 28, 1978, a report of a shooting shattered the peace in the area of East 33rd Avenue and Downing Street in Denver. Responding officers arrived to a grim scene in the parking lot across from a drinking establishment known as the Other Side of the Road Bar. There they found Richard Louis McDougle, a 26-year-old Black male, suffering from a gunshot wound.
Emergency medical services were quickly on the scene and transported McDougle to a local hospital.
Despite their efforts, the single gunshot wound proved to be fatal, and he was pronounced dead. The promising life of the young man, born just before Christmas in 1951, was tragically cut short.
The Denver Police Department opened a homicide investigation into the death of Richard Louis McDougle. Detectives canvassed the area and interviewed potential witnesses, seeking any information that could lead to the person or persons responsible for this violent act. However, the initial investigation did not yield a suspect, and no arrests were made in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
Years have turned into decades, and the case of who killed Richard Louis McDougle has grown cold. The suspect or suspects responsible for his murder have never been identified, and the motive behind the shooting remains a mystery. His case is now part of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's cold case files, a haunting reminder of a life taken too soon and a quest for justice that remains unfulfilled. The Denver Police Department continues to ask for anyone with information regarding this decades-old homicide to come forward.
