A Denver police officer shot an armed man in a parking lot near Coors Field early Saturday morning.
In a news briefing Saturday morning, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said a man was shot in the arm by a police officer about 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, whose identity has not been released, was taken to a hospital, where he is in “serious condition,” according to Thomas. No officers were injured.
Thomas said that although 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 wounded in the nonpolice shooting, but he drove to a 7/11 convenience store near Downing and Lawrence streets — about two miles away from the original shooting — Thomas said.
The police shooting is being investigated by the 2nd Judicial District, including representatives from the district attorney’s office, the State Patrol and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
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