Kevin Bui & Gavin Seymour Identified As Suspects In Deadly House Fire, DA Releases Mugshots
DENVER (CBS4) - The Denver District Attorney's Office announced it charged two 16-year-old boys accused of killing a family in a house fire as adults. The third suspect, a 15-year-old boy, has not been identified.
On Monday, CBS4's Brian Maass learned from sources Kevin Bui and Gavin Seymour would be charged as adults. Seymour faces one murder charge in the case while dozens of counts have been filed against Bui including first degree murder, first degree murder with extreme indifference, arson, burglary and assault.
The house fire on Aug. 5, 2020, killed Djibril Diol, his wife Adja, and their 2-year-old daughter. Hassan Diol and her infant daughter Hawa Baye were also killed in the fire. The family members were immigrants from Senegal.
It was a fire so big that grew so rapidly arson was immediately suspected.
"We cannot understand why crimes are committed by kids of this age, and I think these are questions we don't have the answers to yet and we hope they will be revealed to us soon," Amadou Dieng, a family friend, said.
The friends of the victims say the family did not know the suspects.
Bui lived in Jefferson County where he was arrested. His adult sister, Tany Bui, was taken into custody on unrelated federal gun and drug charges.
Bui and Seymour could face harsher penalties now that they are being charged as adults. The court process for the two will also be more public.
It's not clear how the case of the 15 year old would be handled. All three suspects were arrested last week.
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Investigators have said the fire was not a hate crime and the motive remains a mystery.
Ousman Ba, another friend of the Diol family, expressed satisfaction with the new charges.
"We are just happy that the district attorney charged them as adults," he said.
Social media posts of those arrested were filled with comments about the case even before their names became known. One person posting on Bui's page, "How did you live with yourself?"