A Denver police officer shot an armed man in a parking lot near Coors Field early Saturday morning.
In a Saturday morning news briefing, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said a man was shot in the arm by a police officer around 2 a.m. in a parking lot near the intersection of 19th and Market streets.
A person walking in the area flagged down the police officer — who was working crowd control in Denver’s LoDo district — and reported a man with a gun standing next to a vehicle in a nearby parking lot, Thomas said.
When the officer went to investigate, he found a vehicle matching the person’s description and told the man standing next to it to raise his hands, Thomas said in the briefing.
Thomas said the man didn’t comply and pulled out a gun “in a threatening manner.” The police chief did not elaborate on how the man pulled out the gun or if he pointed it at the officer.
The officer fired one shot, hitting the man in the arm, Thomas said.
The man, who has not been identified, was taken to the hospital, where he is currently in “serious condition,” according to Thomas. No officers were injured.
Thomas said that while multiple gunshots were heard in the area, only one of them belonged to the officer.
Another shooting happened in the parking lot at the same time, and officers believe there may have been a back-and-forth shooting between the man who was shot and others in the parking lot, Thomas said.
One person was injured in the non-police shooting, but he drove off after to a 7/11 near Downing and Lawrence streets — about two miles away from the original shooting — Thomas said.
Multiple witnesses were taken in for questioning, including the person who flagged the officer down originally, and the shootings remain under investigation.
The police shooting is being investigated by the 2nd Judicial District Critical Incident Review Team, which includes representatives from the District Attorney’s Office, Colorado State Patrol and Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
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