Two men were shot and killed by Denver and Westminister police officers in separate incidents within a 24-hour period this weekend.
About 5 p.m. Saturday, Denver officers shot a suspect after stopping a late-model green Jeep Cherokee that reportedly had been stolen in Aurora.
Detective John White, a police spokesman, said the suspect was pronounced dead about 5:23 p.m. at Denver Health Medical Center.
“There was a weapon recovered at the scene and we do believe it was in the possession of the suspect,” White said.
Police Chief Gerry Whitman, as he was leaving the crime scene about 7 p.m., said the suspect’s handgun was still on the ground. The suspect was not identified.
Whitman said at least two officers were involved in the shooting.
Officers fired “multiple shots,” White said.
The officials said they did not know if any shots had been fired at police.
A number of witnesses from the area were taken to police headquarters Saturday evening to assist in the investigation, White said.
The shooting occurred at West 10th Avenue and Clay Way in the Sun Valley public housing complex, just south of Invesco Field.
White said police did not believe the incident “had anything to do with Cinco de Mayo or the cruising” by motorists on nearby Federal Boulevard.
One nearby resident, who identified herself only as Melissa, said she was in her apartment and heard about six shots in rapid succession.
“It was like boom, boom, boom, boom …,” she said.
When she went outside, she saw as many as four men on the ground, the one who had been shot and the others with hands cuffed behind their backs.
It was the second fatal shooting by Denver police in the past 2 1/2 weeks. Early on April 20, police shot and killed a suspected car thief who officers said tried to run them over in a parking garage near Coors Field.
Also Saturday, Westminster police released details of an officer-involved shooting that occurred about 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Police said officer John McDonald went to 5385 78th Place to investigate a report of indecent exposure.
McDonald was responding to a complaint that someone was “running around nude while screaming and acting ‘goofy,”‘ according to the Westminster police report.
When McDonald, alone at the time, made contact with Jason Rohrback at the front door of a second-floor apartment, Rohrback “confronted” McDonald with a knife, the police report said. “Officer J. McDonald fired an unknown number of rounds striking Mr. Rohrback in the torso,” it said.
Rohrback, 30, was pronounced dead at the scene. McDonald was not injured. He was put on paid administrative leave pending the investigation by the department’s critical-incident team. McDonald joined the Westminster police in 2004.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-820-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
