Mike Calo heard the gunshots. Then he saw the gunman backing out of the Salon Ocampo social hall in the early hours of May 8, 2005.
But the Denver police captain told a jury today he had no idea that two Denver policemen had been shot – one fatally – a hundred yards from where he was standing.
Calo had been working security at a bar across the street from the social hall, 1733 W. Mississippi Ave., when he saw the gunman. Calo’s first thought was to pursue the man who had pointed a gun at a person standing outside the hall.
Within seconds, Calo had crossed Mississippi Avenue to the hall but lost sight of the gunman.
Then he heard the voice of Detective Jack Bishop, who he knew was working at the hall, say over the police radio: “Officer down, shots fired.”
Choking up, Calo told the jury the words had an immediate, emotional impact.
“It just hits you like you are punched in the stomach. I think I said ‘Oh s—‘ and I knew we had to find out who it was,” Calo said during the second day of the second-degree murder trial of Raul Gomez-Garcia.
Gomez-Garcia, 21, is accused of killing Denver Detective Donald “Donnie” Young and wounding Bishop, both of whom were ambushed as they provided security at the hall.
Calo said he quickly located Bishop, who was standing outside the hall. He looked like he had lost his best friend, Calo told the jury.
“I said, ‘Who was it?’ And he said, ‘It’s Donnie and it’s bad’,” Calo said.
As children rushed out of the baptismal party where the shooting had occurred, Calo and Bishop headed toward Young, who was on the ground in the hall being cradled by a woman.
“I knelt down and talked to Donnie and comforted him,” Calo said. “I stared at him in his face and tried to talk to him and tell him he’d be OK, and tried to keep him with us the best I could,” Calo said.
He said he noticed that Bishop had turned pale and Bishop told him he wasn’t feeling good.
Calo said he saw a bullet hole in the right side of Bishop’s shirt.
His voice cracking, Calo told the jury, “And he (Bishop) was shot too.”
“I knew I had to get him help too, and so I called out for a second ambulance,” Calo said.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
