Inset: Jacob Hensley (KUSA/YouTube). Background: The area around the Denver Skatepark, near where Jacob Hensley was shot to death (Google Maps).
In Colorado, a father of four met a tragic fate near a Denver skate park, succumbing to five gunshot wounds less than an hour after stepping outside following a conversation with his wife. The suspect in the shooting has asserted self-defense as the reason for the incident, according to the victim’s spouse.
“He never returned,” shared Allison Hensley, the wife of Jacob Hensley, during an interview with local NBC affiliate KUSA. “None of it makes sense,” she added.
Jacob Hensley, aged 28, had been out drinking on the night of May 21, before coming back to their apartment, as his wife recounted.
“The kids were settling in for the night, and he was quite unsteady,” she explained to KUSA. “I told him he should either leave or go rest in the other room.” Jacob then decided to head back outside.
In under an hour, police discovered Jacob Hensley in critical condition near the Denver Skatepark, located at the crossroads of 20th and Little Raven Streets. “He was shot five times,” Allison Hensley reported to KUSA. “That’s excessive,” she remarked.
Allison noted that her husband rarely consumed alcohol, and on that particular evening, he was “so intoxicated he could barely stand.” She fondly remembered him as a “wonderful father” and “remarkable individual” who was “exceptionally smart” and “ambitiously driven.”
According to her, police allege that Jacob was shot by a person in a car who is claiming self-defense, which she said did not make sense.
“Someone who can’t even stand up and you have a car and a gun,” Allison Hensley said. “I don’t believe that he was attacking anyone. I just don’t. That’s just not who he was.”
Jacob Hensley was known to carry a pocketknife on him that he used for work as a general contractor, but his wife told KUSA he would never threaten someone with it.
“He’s pulling knives on people? That’s insane,” Allison Hensley said. “I hope that there’s justice for my kids,” she told KUSA. “He did not deserve to die.”
Police say when they found Jacob Hensley, he was critically wounded. Paramedics transported him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“Investigators are in contact with everyone involved in this incident,” the Denver Police Department posted on X. “The investigation is ongoing. No arrests at this time.”
Allison Hensley, who was married to Jacob for 10 years, wrote on Facebook that her husband’s death “was sudden and violent.” She said her family is “still trying to process this unimaginable loss.”
