Police seeking motive into party shooting

DENVER — A shooting at a birthday party inside a trailer park home in Colorado Springs that killed six before the gunman took his own life stunned a state weary of gun violence just weeks after another Colorado mass shooting killed 10 people.

Police on Monday were investigating what led the gunman, who they said was the boyfriend of one of the victims, to walk into the crowded party early Sunday and open fire.

Six adults were killed at the home at the Canterbury Mobile Home Park on the east side of Colorado’s second-largest city, and a seventh died at a hospital, authorities said. The shooter was the boyfriend of a female victim at the party attended by friends, family and children, police said.

Authorities didn’t release the names of the victims, gunman or disclose a possible motive. Officials were still in the process of identifying the victims, Sandy Wilson of the El Paso County Coroner’s Office said Monday.

A mobile crime lab was parked Monday outside the home, which was cordoned off by yellow police tape as officers guarded the scene.

“My heart breaks for the families who have lost someone they love and for the children who have lost their parents,” Colorado Springs Police Chief Vince Niski said in a statement.

The attack follows a series of mass shootings across the U.S. this year, including one on March 22 at a crowded supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, that killed 10, including a police officer. The gunman in that attack faces multiple charges including first-degree murder. He has yet to enter a plea pending a mental health evaluation requested by his public defenders.

A neighbor, Yenifer Reyes, told The Denver Post that she woke to the sound of gunfire and later saw police escorting children who were “crying hysterically” from the home. The children weren’t hurt in the attack and have been placed with relatives, police said.

The first fire crews to respond were told to stay back because of possible gunfire — then given an allclear to approach the home an agonizing eight minutes after initial dispatch, according to a recording of a Colorado Springs dispatch call.

As the magnitude of the shooting became clearer, the first on the scene requested more ambulances and engine crews. Sirens are heard in the background as responders at the scene request more help.

“Engine 11, sounds like more shots are still being fired -- keep your distance,” a dispatcher says at one point.