A Greeley man was hospitalized early this morning after a police officer shot him at least once, authorities say.
Justin Shane Berry, 24, was taken to a Greeley hospital with a life-threatening gunshot wound.
“There was a lot of blood,” Greeley police Sgt. Joe Tymkowych said.
No police officers were injured in the gunfire exchange.
Police responded to several reports beginning at 3:24 a.m. that a man was firing a gun while standing on a porch and near a car in a residential neighborhood on the 600 block of 13th Avenue, Tymkowych said.
Police said that when confronted, the man raised his gun. One officer shot at the man. A bullet struck him. The wounded man then ran into his house and barricaded himself in.
SWAT team members were called. They cordoned off the house and evacuated several houses on the block. Two other men who were at the house at the time of the shooting came out of the house and were interviewed by police.
The suspect slipped out a back window and was found around 7:30 a.m. hiding in the backyard of a home a few houses away, Tymkowych said.
He said police are investigating why the man was firing his gun.
The suspect has numerous convictions, mostly for misdemeanors including drunken driving, drugs and vandalism, he said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
