A 71-year-old American Airlines flight attendant based in Phoenix was murdered this weekend, the result of a string of stabbing attacks in downtown Denver. A suspect was taken into custody for a subsequent Sunday night stabbing. Flight attendants have been relocated away from downtown for their layovers.
- On Saturday at 5:17 p.m. police respond to a report of a stabbing on the 16th Street Mall. Officers discovered a female victim with serious throat injuries. She was rushed to the hospital but died shortly after. Authorities identified her as Celinda Levno, who had worked as a flight attendant for over thirty years.
- Within minutes of the first attack, two additional victims were stabbed in the same area. One of them sustained facial injuries and transported himself to the hospital. The other is hospitalized in critical condition.
- Sunday night around 10 p.m. police reported a stabbing that claimed the life of an adult male. A suspect was apprehended and suspected of all of these attacks, but this has not been confirmed.
Celinda Levno was the flight attendant. pic.twitter.com/O8bsqEDaG0
— Chaos Alerts (@ChaosAlertsOnX) January 13, 2025
Flight attendants are devasted by Celinda Levno’s death. She began with America West in 1989. Flight attendants union Association of Professional Flight Attendants offered,
With great sadness, we inform you of the passing of Phoenix-based Flight Attendant Celinda Levno while on layover in Denver. Celinda began her career with America West in 1989.
Celinda’s love for her horses, friends, and family will always be remembered. We stand in support with Celinda’s family, friends, and our colleagues in Phoenix Inflight as they process this senseless tragedy.
While this tragic event did not take place at the layover hotel, crews laying over in downtown Denver will be temporarily relocated to a hotel near the Denver airport.
APFA Employee Assistance (EAP) is available to help Flight Attendants process this unexpected tragic loss.
On behalf of APFA, we extend our heartfelt condolences to Celinda’s family, friends, and all Phoenix Crewmembers who had the pleasure of flying with her.
According to American Airlines,
We are heartbroken and mourning the tragic loss of our colleague who was the victim of a senseless crime last night. Our thoughts and support are with her family, loved ones and colleagues, and we are doing all we can to assist law enforcement in its investigation.
All three victims on Saturday were by themselves at the time of the assaults. American Airlines temporarily relocated its flight attendants from a downtown Denver hotel to an alternative accommodation citing crewmember safety risk.
Democrat run hellhole.
Sanctuary stupidity
Another reason I don’t go anywhere unarmed
Lawless city. Exhibit A:
Denver mayor says he’s prepared to go to jail over opposition to Trump deportations of ILLEGAL immigrants
Its a shame innocent people have to pay for this foolishness
It’s so sad that republicans have defunded the police.
Literally.
Big Stable doesn’t pay his bills to local municipalities for stuff like police overtime (for his cult rallies going back a decade).
Disgusting and anti-American.
They’re so weak on crime.
@AndyS
Ah, yes, never let a tragedy go to waste. Blame your political foes, regardless of reality or who committed the act(s). Classic.
Crime is bad and should be investigated and punished regardless of where it occurs. Murder occurs in Trump-run shitholes, too. Not good there either.
Yet, instead of meaningful policy improvements, we’re in for a lot of ‘distractions’ in the coming years. Sadly, there will likely still be murders.
Speaking of, you still frothing at the mouth for those ‘mass deportations’? Surely, that will solve everything…
Another formerly great American city ruined by leftist policies
My condolences.
the timeline between the 3 stabbings is of particular concern. Is there even a modicum of public safety and police presence in Denver?
How tragic but unfortunately not surprising. I’ve lived in the Denver suburbs for 30+ years and it breaks my heart how the leftist policies have destroyed the city. I used to work downtown when it was safe and fun and now I won’t step foot into the hell hole.
If you follow right-wing media (and certain commenters here), it sure is ironic how crime and ‘bad things’ only happen in ‘blue, leftist, Democrat-run’ cities and states. What a magical world where you and ‘your team’ are absolved of any responsibility, and can just blame the ‘other team’ when it really has nothing to do with them or you. Again, crime is bad. No one (should be) ‘for’ crime.
Starting January 20, 2025, at noon, will all the ‘bad things’ disappear because the ‘red team’ is leading? Would ‘getting rid’ of all the ‘others’ miraculously make it better? Of course, not. Bad things will still happen. It’ll just be ignored. Just like how there were murders in a ‘red’ states and cities the same day. Maybe try solving actual issues, not just vilifying your perceived opponents.
Do you hear yourselves? My condolences to the family and her co-workers. Lives are lost like this in Dallas and Houston and Miami so don’t get all high and mighty and “oh I carry a gun”, did you ever stop something like this from happening, my guess is no. BTW. . .life long conservative with actual values.
This is tragic and sad and could happen anywhere. God rest her sole and the rest of you, think about what is important here, not politics, not gun rights, but a lost life.
I knew Celina personally, and have known her and her family for close to 50 years. She was a marvelous musician, and I’ve played with her and her husband John in a number of musical ensembles. It’s a shame that people have to politicize the death of a really decent human being, but that’s the nature of our callous politics nowadays – blame “the other” for the problems the world faces and never accept personal responsibility for one’s own mistakes. Politicians didn’t murder my friend. Some jerk did.
Very sad indeed. Elections have consequences as we’ve seen over and over again in blue run hell holes. Denver used to be one of the most beautiful cities in the US. Today it’s a SFO wannabe.
@DesertGhost
Sorry for the loss of your friend
This is of course bad and ugly news but has nothing to do with the aviation.
A woman — an elderly woman, if I may say so, who should have been retired with a decent pension to live on so she does not have to work at all, and certainly not fly daily (as it is detrimental for bodies at that age, no one over 35ish should be air crew, they should transfer to being ground crew) was stabbed in some third tier city in a second tier country of the Western Hemisphere fast approaching a “Third World shithole” (to quote a former and future leader of that country) level.
Absolutely nothing to do with flying.
But but but Johnston and Polis say that Dever is safe and all this talk of raging crime is just fake news from Fox.
Between the bums everywhere, the open air hard drug use and the resultant zombies everywhere and illegal alien gangs I don’t know why ANYONE would willingly risk their own safety to go there.
I used to go to GABF every year. Until they move it out of Denver, I won’t anymore.
I look forward to watching troops roll into Aurora and Denver the afternoon of the 20th.
A 71 year old FA? What a complete joke. Is she really going to be helpful in an emergency? We obviously know she won’t be helping with any bags.
The mandatory retirement age for FAs really should be 35, before they turn into bitter old Karens, and then they can go do something with their lives…but I’ll settle for 50.
What @1990 and @DesertGhost said.
This is NOT a political blog. It’s about travel and travel-related issues.
Sorry for the loss of this AA FA.
Period.
Sorry, @Ric, but Gary enables the uneducated right wing dystopia on this blog. So it’s OK to ignore the higher crime in many red states and turn this unfortunate death into a foaming-at-the-mouth tirade about blue states.
It is what it is. They probably need a way to feel good about themselves because they can’t afford to live somewhere nicer.
I’m not sure Denver was ever that great to begin with. Remember, at one point, Denver was considered so remote and God-forsaken that it was a good place to make nerve gas and nuclear weapons.
I echo @Ric, @DesertGhost, @SunViking82-there’s a time and place for political arguments and this isn’t it.
Thoughts and prayers for peace for her family and friends. Please people, show some decency and restraint.
A couple of comments on this article today are ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING. Mantis and the literature award winner are hopefully holed up at home and not out roaming among the masses. I hope I never encounter anyone with these crappy attitudes. Shameful. Condolences to the Family and Friends of this woman.
Mantis writes, “A 71 year old FA? What a complete joke. Is she really going to be helpful in an emergency? We obviously know she won’t be helping with any bags.
The mandatory retirement age for FAs really should be 35, before they turn into bitter old Karens, and then they can go do something with their lives…but I’ll settle for 50.”
I disagree with the idea that the mandatory retirement age for flight attendants should be set at 35 years old. This policy would prevent dedicated employees from achieving 20 years of seniority. Interestingly, in the United States, federal regulations under 14 CFR Part 121 allow a 35-year-old flight attendant to qualify as a commercial pilot until their 65th birthday.
I looked at the comments. So many were political and attacked Denver itself, rather than dealing with the issue. Which is can airlines provide better protection to its crews? They can but a solution must involve all parties.
It’s truly unfortunate this happened.
I know for certain there’s been repeated concern voiced to AA Corporate Security and the APFA regarding the areas where crews layover are unsafe, particularly in downtown locations such as LA, San Diego, San Fran, Seattle, Chicago, Mexico, Guatemala, etc. and yes, even downtown Denver. Not just recently, but over the years, particularly since 2020.
The corporate security response is normally something along the lines of “thanks for reporting it, we will look into it” and the APFA usually says something like “this is the first time we’ve heard about this location” which is BS, when it’s well known in crew circles to avoid certain layovers like the plague or if they’re stuck someplace, to not leave the hotel alone, not to leave the hotel at all.
End of the day, it takes something like this to happen for a knee jerk response from either side to take action. AA and the APFA must do better.