Police in Estes Park deal with separate standoffs; one man dead
About five hours after Estes Park police finished a day-long standoff with a suicidal gunman, they were dealing with another armed man firing a weapon into the air at the western edge of this mountain town.
Police and SWAT teams converged Saturday around a parking lot near the Lazy R Cottages near Moraine Avenue by the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park at about 6 p.m., according to witnesses.
The man, whom police did not immediately identify, was taken into custody by 8 p.m. No other information was immediately available and no injuries have been reported, but witnesses said they heard several shots fired into the air just before the standoff began.
“Standoff with an agitated man with a gun,” tweeted Vince Chandler, a digital multimedia editor at The Denver Post who was nearby. “He’s fired it into the air 4-5 times already.”
A woman who had called police said she saw the man driving around shouting, Chandler said. Estes Park police and U.S. Parks Service police cruisers were among the vehicles surrounding the area where the gunman was parked.
The incident began hours after police with several departments converged on a home southeast of the park entrance along Larkspur Avenue where a gunman kept them at bay for more than 24 hours.
“Estes Park Police Department personnel made contact with the individual and spoke with him on the phone for approximately seven hours,” city officials wrote in a news release Saturday afternoon. “The individual made multiple threats against the lives of lawenforcement and claimed to have placed explosive devices around the home.”
The man had told police he planted explosives around his home to prevent their entry, although police later confirmed there were no explosives.
A SWAT team had gone into the home Friday night and the man there fired several shots at the officers, officials said. Officers entered the home again Saturday and found the man dead, apparently from a self-inflicted wound. His identity has not been released.