A man was injured this morning when he fell from an upper floor of an apartment building while trying to elude officers, police said.
The incident happened at about 10:30 a.m. near East 12th Avenue and Grant Street, said Sonny Jackson, a Denver Police Department spokesman.
Jackson said police were called to the multi-story Capitol Hill building by an employer who was concerned about an employee, a woman, who hadn’t showed up for work and didn’t call.
Officers knocked on a 5th-floor apartment door and no one answered, but they heard noises inside, Jackson said.
An officer went downstairs and was outside the building, trying to find an apartment manager to gain entry to the unit, when a man slammed to the ground nearby.
The man apparently fled the 5th floor apartment over the side of a balcony or out a window in an attempt to flee police at the door, Jackson said. He was somehow climbing down the outside of the building and tried to jump onto a canopy, which he missed.
The man, who has not been identified, was taken to Denver Health Medical Center for injuries from the fall.
Jackson said the man tumbled about 15-feet and was “not seriously hurt.”
Police later entered the apartment and found a “marijuana growing operation,” Jackson said.
“We believe that’s why he didn’t want to open the door,” Jackson said.
The woman police were checking on was later found safe, outside the apartment in another part of Denver.
Police are investigating the incident and may release the man’s name if he’s arrested, Jackson said.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
