A man police said was suicidal leveled a gun at four officers and was shot to death Sunday afternoon, a Denver police spokeswoman said.
Residents in the Trump Plaza Apartments on Morrison Road near South Sheridan Boulevard said he was an older man who was disabled and might have been drinking Sunday.
“Everyone knew him,” said neighbor John Lee, who had known the man for a year. “He drank his beer, but he never bothered anybody.”
On Monday the Denver coroner identified the man as Alfred Vigil, 62.
Lee said neighbors hoped to organize a candlelight vigil to remember the victim, who lived alone.
Denver police Detective Leslie Branch-Wise said Sunday four officers were urging the man to put the gun down. When he raised the gun at them, the officers returned fire. It did not appear the man got off a shot at the officers, she said.
He was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where he died a short time later.
The shooting happened just before 3 p.m. Police blocked off a wide area of Morrison Road until at least dusk.
The shooting is the fifth to involve a Denver police officer this year, and the third in a little over a month, according to the district attorney’s office.
According to procedure, the shooting will be reviewed by the DA’s office, which will issue a ruling on whether the use of force was justified.
The Denver DA’s office reviewed four officer-involved shootings in all of 2009, seven in 2008 and 20 in 2007.
The last shooting reviewed by prosecutors was the July 18 incident in which 25-year-old Daniel Alderete was shot at a home in west Denver after he refused officers’ commands that he put down a gun. He survived his injuries.
All four officer-involved shootings this year have been ruled justified, according to the decision letters posted online.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
