An undercover narcotics officer shot a man who aimed a gun at him after the officer drove into an alley to provide cover in an unrelated drug bust, police said.
Two men, including the man who was shot in the thigh, ran away but were arrested within 90 minutes after the confrontation, which happened Tuesday just after midnight in the alley between Pennsylvania and Pearl streets, said Denver police spokeswoman Virginia Lopez.
“We are lucky these were two experienced police detectives who were confronted by these two criminals,” Chief Gerry Whitman said.
He believes the two men did not know the undercover detectives were police officers.
Seventy recruits of the Denver police academy combed the area in search of the suspect’s gun, Whitman said. The officers and firefighters climbed ladders to search roofs, opened newspaper bins and searched vacant buildings. But no gun was found, Lopez said.
The incident happened after two undercover officers drove in an unmarked car near a drug sting in the 1400 block of Pennsylvania Street, where two other undercover officers were arresting suspected drug dealers, Lopez said.
As they drove into the alley, one of the two men struck the unmarked police car either with his fist or with an object. The car stopped, and the two officers got out, Lopez said.
One man lifted his shirt, pulled a pistol out of his waistband and aimed at the driver of the police car, she said. Both officers fired their guns, she said. The two men ran.
One was arrested in a nearby yard. As an officer swung open a gate, it struck the suspect in the head, Lopez said.
About 90 minutes later, the other injured man drove with a woman and two children to where the shooting took place. The man got out and told police he had been shot in the leg.
The identities of the two suspects were not released. But they have lengthy criminal records, Whitman said.
Pete Gatseos, owner of Pete’s Cafe, which is on the same block where the shooting happened, said crackheads and dope dealers moved east to his block when police installed a camera on Pennsylvania.
Every day, he said, they go up and down the street asking him, “Are you looking? Are you looking?”
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
