DENVER — Police are seeking three suspects in a shooting near East Colfax Avenue that left one person dead and five people injured Tuesday afternoon.
The shooting happened in the 1400 block of Verbena Street, police stated in a tweet at 2:19 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.
Four men were shot, including the fatal victim, and two women were shot, police said.
Initially, police said that six people were shot, but the number of victims was then changed to five. Late in the afternoon, police corrected the number and announced that six people had indeed been shot.
Cmdr. Matt Clark said during a news conference that one person was pronounced dead on scene.
Dozens of police officers worked the scene Tuesday afternoon on Verbena Street, just south of East Colfax. They erected a tent to cover the body of the man who was killed in the shooting next to Michael Convenience Store.
Clark said the victims were standing on a sidewalk when a silver vehicle pulled up and three suspect got out and opened fire.
The two women who were shot, and at least two of the men, were taken to area hospitals, he said. Three of the victims were described as being in critical condition.
There was no direct contact between the suspects and the group before shots were fired, Clark said.
The shooters got back into the vehicle and fled east on Colfax, Clark said. Officers found the suspect vehicle in the area of East 12th Avenue and Yosemite Street, where the suspects got into a black SUV and drove off. No arrests have been made, and police are looking for the SUV
Verbena is closed from East 14th to East 16th avenues, and the eastbound lanes of East Colfax Avenue are closed from Uinta to Wabash streets, police said.
The ShotSpotter system was the first notification of the gunfire, then dispatch started receiving 911 calls, Clark said. Video surveillance shows the suspects driving up in the vehicle before stepping out and pulling handguns on a group sitting behind a discount store. A motive is not clear at this time.
Stephen Gile, who works at the Airway Motel across the street from the shooting, heard 20 to 30 gunshots just before 2 p.m. He rushed outside and saw several people bleeding from gunshot wounds.
“It sounded like a freakin’ war,” he said.
Gile, a former flight medic for the Air Force, performed chest compressions on one of the injured men. The man had a bullet wound to the side of his chest and did not survive, Gile said.
Gile has lived near the intersection for nearly 10 years and said there is almost always a group of people hanging out in the spot where the shooting happened.
The violence in the area ebbs and flows, he said. It was quieter this year than last, he said, but gunfire isn’t uncommon.
“I was just waiting for this to happen,” he said.
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