Two men were arrested in a shooting late Tuesday after they fired at undercover officers in Aurora, police say.
A suspect and two officers received minor injuries during the apprehension, but no one was hit by bullets, according to a news release from police spokeswoman Shannon Lucy.
Officers from the Aurora Police Department’s pattern-crime unit were working in an unmarked car in plain clothes near East First Avenue and Lansing Street at about 9:44 p.m. when a sport utility vehicle drove by, and someone fired multiple shots, Lucy said.
The officers chased the SUV. At East Mississippi Avenue and South Norfolk Street, it crashed through a wooden fence and ended up in a homeowner’s backyard. Officers ordered the driver out of the SUV, but it blasted out of the yard in reverse and sped west on East Mississippi, still in reverse.
A marked patrol car came nose to nose with the suspect vehicle, still in reverse, and the SUV hit an electrical box, causing a small fire. The SUV then hit a tree, knocking it into the roadway. Near East Mississippi and South Kalispell Street, the SUV went through another wooden fence, and it was finally halted, pinned in by another patrol car.
Two men and two women in the SUV were taken into custody.
A handgun was recovered by officers in the backyard of a home at East Mississippi and South Norfolk.
Two patrol officers and one passenger in the SUV were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital and released.
Police identified the driver of the SUV as 30-year-old Manuel Adrian Diaz.
Diaz is being held at the Aurora Jail on suspicion of attempted homicide and other possible charges. He also is wanted on warrants out of Arapahoe County and Denver, police said.
The second man in the SUV, Lorenzo Jesus Torres, 28, is being held on two misdemeanor failure-to-appear warrants out of Aurora, police said.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Detective Barry Cape at 303 739-6947.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
