Light snow began to fall through the bitter-cold air on the 16th Street Mall as the family of Nicholas “Trip” Burkett placed flowers where he was killed.

The 34-year-old man was one of four people stabbed allegedly by 24-year-old Elijah Caudill on the 16th Street Mall during the weekend of Jan. 11 to 12. Burkett was one of two victims who died.

The family — including his parents Wayne Burkett and Carol Cortez, and his younger sister, Maxine Burkett — gathered at the lamp post at the intersection of 16th and Wazee streets on Friday afternoon near where he was attacked to hold a daytime candle-light vigil.

“I’m mainly here to feel where he was,” Maxine said. “His last energy was here.”

Burkett’s father called it both surreal and tough.

“I don’t think this has happened to many people,” he said. “It’s terrifying to think about what had happened to him and what he went through in his last moments.”

The exact location of the attack is unclear. The Denver Police Department and Denver Office of the Medical Examiner placed Burkett’s death at 16th and Wynkoop streets, about a block away.

The Denver Gazette previously reported that nearby workers claimed Burkett had been in a wheelchair at the time of the attack, but the family noted that he was not in a wheelchair. According to Wayne Burkett one of the other victims was in a wheelchair.

The details of the stabbings remained murky, but, to his friends and family, one fact was clear: Burkett was loved and will be missed.

“He liked the spotlight. He didn’t really care what other people thought,” Cortez said. “He loved his music. He loved his art.”

She added, “He meant a lot to us. He was important. He wasn’t just a throw-away person.”

“He was really obnoxious,” Maxine joked. “He was extremely outspoken. He would say anything that came to his mind and he would get all of his friends in on it.”

Burkett had been struggling with mental health and addiction issues in recent years and was homeless at the time of the stabbing. He had been living around the 16th Street Mall.

“There are a lot of vulnerable people and they come down here because they feel safe because there are other people around,” Wayne Burkett said. “I’ve been homeless and I would come down here because I felt like it was OK to be down here.”

The suspect, Caudill, was also reported to have been homeless in 2021, according to an Aug. 30, 2021 application for a restraining order filed against him in the Adams County Court by the Village at Park Centre shopping center at 121th Avenue and Huron Street. His family also claimed that he had drug and mental health problems.

The Burkett family theorized that the suspect may have been targeting weak and frail victims, with Burkett looking gaunt from substance abuse.

The first victim was a 49-year-old man who was slashed across the face at 16th and Tremont streets on Jan. 11 around 5:12 p.m., according to arrest records.

Celinda Levno, 71, was the first victim who lost her life. The American Airline flight attendant — who was in Denver for a layover — was stabbed in the throat outside of the Jamba Juice at 16th and California streets around 5:17 p.m. 

The third victim was a 62-year-old man who was stabbed in his arm and torso. He was attacked at 16th and Lawrence streets around 5:54 p.m. and went to Denver Health for treatment.

Burkett was the fourth victim. He was stabbed a day after  — on Sunday evening.

Caudill was arrested on Jan. 12 shortly before they found Burkett’s body. 

The arrest affidavit said that at 8:06 p.m. on Sunday, Denver police officers were in the area of 16th and Wynkoop when they saw a man in his 20s with a “large knife in his hands.” The officers pursued the suspect, who “dropped the knife and was taken into custody.”

The officers noted the knife appeared to be covered in blood. 

Police found Burkett shortly after on the ground at 16th and Wynkoop. He had been stabbed in the back.

He was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 8:45 p.m.

While Burkett’s family is relieved that a suspect was arrested, they said there’s a dark cloud lingering over the incident.

“For a man like that, at 24 years old, to become mentally ill and drug addicted himself and then become a murderer. That’s it for his life?” Wayne Burkett said of the suspect. “That’s not justice. It’s just paying the price for what you’ve done.” 

Burkett’s family noted advancements in the city but said a “ghetto” still remains under its surface, with not enough resources for homeless people with mental health or drug issues.

“We’re all in this together and we really have to fight for our city to be safe,” Maxine said. “I want to bring my kids down here and I want other families to be able to bring their kids down here without feeling like something’s going to happen.”

“We’re just not addressing it,” Wayne Burkett said of homelessness and mental illness. “We’re trying to hide it.”

The number of homeless families in metro Denver spiked last year by more than 134%, according to an annual report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The number of homeless individuals grew by roughly 2,200 — an increase of more than 40%.

“Just getting help for those kind of people. Apparently, my son and the killer were pretty much the same type of people. They were both drug addicts, homeless, mental illnesses,” Cortez said. “They both needed help.”