Robert Gollick was aroused from his sleep by lights and noise at 3 a.m., the beginning of a bizarre chain of events that left a suspected burglar dead from unknown causes and Gollick’s nextdoor neighbor stabbed near Washington Park today.
Two neighbors pinned the prowler down in an alley in the 600 block of South Vine Street, and the suspected burglar later died after struggling to breathe when police showed up. The cause of death has not yet been determined, said Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson.
Gollick didn’t see the altercation but heard the man moaning as police arrived, he said.
He had been anything but subtle for a prowler, however.
When Gollick looked out his window to see the man in his 30s checking for open doors, motion lights were shining and the man seemed to be making no effort to avoid being seen, Gollick said.
At one point, he stumbled over some garbage cans and created a racket.
“He wasn’t stealthy at all,” Gollick said. “It was completely weird.”
A newer white pickup truck waited at the end of the alley before trolling up it between the time Gollick called 9-1-1 and officers arrived.
The two neighbors who confronted the man have not been named by police.
The suspected burglar had a knife, and when the two men crawled off him, one of them had blood on his shirt from a cut inflicted during the struggle, Jackson said.
The man was taken to the hospital to be check out, but his injuries were not life-threatening, Jackson said.
A man answering a knock at the door of the home on the arrest report this afternoon declined comment through the closed door.
Another neighbor, who declined to give her name, described the incident as “real scary.”
An investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Jackson said the stabbing victim was at a friend’s home when they heard noises outside.
The man went outside to investigate and found the apparent burglar, Jackson said.
Another neighbor came out of his home and helped hold the burglar there until police arrived a short time later.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
