The scores of people gathered in Holly Square on Wednesday evening grilled burgers and played basketball, but the shooting that unfolded in the same place just days earlier weighed heavily on their minds.

One of the area's most prominent anti-gang activists, Terrance Roberts, is facing charges of attempted murder in the Friday attack, which left a man in critical condition and put many in the Park Hill neighborhood on edge. While music blared and the smell of barbecue wafted over the basketball courts Wednesday, many said they still had unanswered questions about the violence and about the community figure they thought they knew.

"There's a lot of pain from both sides but also a lot of togetherness," said Lumumba Sauers, who helps in the community and who knows some of the young men Roberts tried to mentor through his Prodigal Son Initiative. Its headquarters sits across the street from the scene of the shooting. "Whether this was a bad situation or a good situation, the outcome is Terrance brought a lot of people together."

Among those in Wednesday night's crowd was Jabulani Abdalla, whose nephew, Hasan "Munch" Jones, 22, remains hospitalized with bullet wounds to the head and heart. Abdalla said his nephew was showing signs of improvement, but he hadn't been able to say much about the shooting because he remains intubated and sedated.

Roberts knew Jones from the neighborhood, Abdalla said, and the two had gone to Denver Nuggets games together. But their relationship recently had become strained.

"A person the neighborhood trusted has violated the trust of the neighborhood. That's never an easy feeling," said Carl McKay, who runs a cleaning company near the shopping center. But the area is coping, he said, pointing to the new Boys and Girls Club, the rec center and the library as signs of the area's progress.