Gunman kills five people and injures officer in Denver area
At least five people were killed and several injured, including a police officer, after a series of shootings across the Denver area.
Four were killed in the Monday night shooting and a fifth died from her injuries on Tuesday, police said.
Police did not immediately name the suspected gunman, who was also killed, and said the motive for the shootings on Monday, across several locations in and around Colorado’s capital, was unclear.
The Denver police chief, Paul Pazen, told a news conference there were “four significant locations where gunfire took place in the city and county of Denver”.
“This one individual was responsible for this very violent crime spree that took place this evening,” he said.
After the incident, police said a “large-scale” investigation was under way and details were still very limited.
Pazen said: “This is the holiday season. To have this type of spree take place is not normal for our community.”
He said the shootings started shortly after 5pm, when two women were killed and a man was injured. A man was then killed at a second location. A gun was fired at a third location but no injuries were reported.
Denver police chased a vehicle and exchanged gunfire with the suspect, who Pazen said disabled the police car and “fled into Lakewood”, about eight miles from downtown Denver.
Shortly before 6pm, Lakewood police got a call reporting shots fired at a business. John Romero, a Lakewood police spokesman, said one person was pronounced dead at the scene.
A while later, police identified the suspect’s car. As police approached, the driver started shooting and police returned fire, he said.
The suspect ran to a shopping centre and threatened a business before taking cover at a Hyatt Place hotel where he shot a clerk who was taken to hospital.
The suspect fled and was confronted by a police officer, who was shot. On Monday night, the officer underwent surgery. After more gunfire with police, the suspect was killed. It was unclear whether the suspect was killed by police but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Romero said police did not believe there was any additional threat to the community, adding: “We do believe at this point there was only one shooter.”
On Tuesday, in Lakewood’s Belmar shopping district, plywood covered some windows of a wood-fired pizza restaurant. Workers were cleaning up inside.
Investigators were checking for bullet holes in the aluminum window frame of another store. Nearby sat a two-door Honda Civic, with a bullet through the hood and a flat front tire.
It was the latest of several shootings in Colorado this year. In March, 10 people were killed by a gunman at a grocery store in Boulder. Two months later, six people were killed by a gunman at a birthday party in Colorado Springs.
Last month, six teenagers were injured in Aurora in a drive-by shooting.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 687 mass shootings in the US in 2021.