A Brutal House Fire Killed 5. Now, a Photo of the Suspects

Members of a Senegalese family were killed in the Aug. 5 blaze in Denver
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 20, 2020 9:30 AM CDT
Police Ask for Help in IDing 3 Masked Men
A photo released by police in Denver of three masked suspects.   (Denver Police Department, via CNN)

There's a $14,000 reward for information on a blaze in Denver earlier this month that killed five Senegalese family members. Now police have released a photo they hope will help them catch the suspects. Per CNN, the image shows three masked individuals wearing dark-colored hoodies on Aug. 5 at the site of a two-story house in the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood that went up in flames. Killed in the fire were Djibril and Adja Diol; their toddler daughter, Khadija; Djibril's sister, Hassan Diol; and her infant daughter, Hawa Baye, the New York Times reports. In addition to the photo of the masked suspects, an image of the dark four-door sedan they fled the scene in has also been released by authorities.

Police say they soon knew that the fire was the work of arsonists, though they're staying mum on details as they continue to conduct what's now a homicide investigation; police haven't ruled out a hate crime. The fire was so intense it caused damage to two nearby homes. An officer on the scene couldn't get into the house to help the occupants because the heat was too much. There were three survivors who escaped by jumping from the second floor. A local Senegalese leader in Denver, which is home to about 2,000 Senegalese immigrants, said at a presser earlier this month that Djibril Diol was a civil engineer who'd graduated from Colorado State University. The president of Senegal, Macky Sall, offered his condolences on Twitter. "I was moved to learn of the deaths of 5 of our compatriots," he wrote on Aug. 6. "It is a very serious matter that we are following closely." (More house fire stories.)

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