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2 teens charged as adults in Denver house fire that killed former Summit County resident

Djibril Diol poses for a photo before graduating from Colorado Mountain College in Summit County in 2015. He and his family were killed in an August 2020 house fire in Denver. Police believe the fire was intentionally set.
Photo by Alli Langley / Summit Daily archives

DENVER — Two of the three teenagers arrested in connection with a house fire in Denver that killed a family of five, including a former Summit County resident, have been charged as adults, prosecutors said Tuesday, Feb. 2.

Kevin Bui and Gavin Seymour, both 16, were charged with 60 felony counts, including first-degree murder, attempted murder, arson and burglary in the Aug. 5 fire that killed former Silverthorne resident Djibril Diol. Diol graduated from Colorado Mountain College in Summit County in 2015 with an associate of science degree in physics. He immigrated to the U.S. from the West African country of Senegal in 2012.

Also killed in the fire were Diol’s wife, Adja; their 22-month-old daughter, Khadija; relative Hassan Diol; and her infant daughter, Hawa Baye, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office.



Three other people who escaped the home in the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood near Denver International Airport by jumping from the second story were hospitalized with injuries that were not life threatening.

Bui and Seymour were arrested last week in Jefferson County along with a third boy, who is 15 years old. According to court records, Bui and Seymour are both represented by public defenders, who do not comment on cases, and their court documents have been sealed.



The third boy, whose name has not been released, was charged in the juvenile system. He is accused of 47 counts including first-degree murder, attempted murder, first-degree and second-degree assault, first- and fourth- degree arson, first- and second- degree burglary, conspiracy charges and a sentence enhancer of being an aggravated juvenile offender.

Prosecutors will seek to charge the 15-year-old boy as an adult, but a judge would need to approve that first because of his age.

Police believe the fire was intentionally set, but investigators have not released any information about a motive or how the fire started.

The arson-homicide investigation also led to the arrest last week of Tanya Bui, 23, a relative of Kevin Bui, on federal drug and weapons charges. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives investigators opened a case against her after reviewing social media and telephone records from Kevin Bui’s cellphone, which she paid for.

The Colorado Sun and Summit Daily News contributed to this report.


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