Yikes!

The Tech Center is not exactly ghetto, so this happening there is kind of extreme.

CRIMESTOPPERS: Tech Center murder still baffles police

DENVER - A local man was attacked and killed - apparently by strangers - while walking along a Denver Tech Center street on June 26, 2006.

Thirty-one-year-old Michael Taft was enjoying a summer barbecue at an upscale apartment complex in Greenwood Village, when he had an argument with his girlfriend. Friends said he left on foot at about 1 a.m. on June 26.

Police say Taft was crossing Prentice Avenue at Ulster Street, looking for a way to get to his Denver home, when he encountered a group of people.

His girlfriend heard their voices in the background, when she called his cell phone from the party.

His girlfriend lost the call, but a few minutes later she received a return call from Michael's cell phone, police say.

"A man using Michael's phone said, 'He's lying in a pool of blood,'" said Detective Michelle Ponikiski. "'He's a racist and we had to stomp him. You'd better call the police.'"

Ponikiski says before the girlfriend could call 911, she received another call from a different man, using the same cell phone.

"We were just teasing," said the voice. "Michael is fine. He's at the Purple Martini."

The martini is a bar just a block away from the crime scene.

An hour later, a passerby found Michael lying in the turn lane of Prentice Avenue, at the intersection with Ulster Street. He was unconscious from a vicious beating. He was taken to a hospital, where he died a week later. His cell phone was never found.

"The mindless murderers who did this are still on the streets," said Larry Taft, Michael's father. "It behooves anyone who has information to come forward, because these folks are dangerous."