A armed man who died Monday night in an Aurora police shooting has been identified.
Daniel Garcia, 25, died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office.
Garcia was hit in the upper body – in the chest and shoulder – with gunfire from one weapon, said Dr. Michael Dobersen, the Arapahoe County Coroner.
The fatal wounds were not self-inflicted, Dobersen said.
The night of the fatal shooting Garcia was armed and holding two people, a man and a woman, against their will inside a vehicle in a parking lot, police said.
At about 11 p.m. Monday officers were called to a motel in the 14200 block of East Sixth Avenue about a woman being threatened by a man with a gun, police said.
People involved in the disturbance at the motel drove to a nearby apartment complex in the 14200 block of East First Drive and officers caught up with them there.
Police set up a perimeter around the vehicle and called for assistance, including SWAT officers and an armored rescue vehicle. Officers heard at least one gunshot and moved in on the vehicle to rescue the hostages, and several more shots were fired.
A hostage and a police sergeant were wounded in the incident. Their injuries are not life-threatening, and the sergeant, a nine-year veteran with Aurora, is recuperating at home.
Further details on the condition of the hostage who was shot, a man, were not available.
The coroner’s office is awaiting the results of toxicology reports to determine whether Garcia had drugs or alcohol in his system.
In 2006 Garcia was found guilty of felony menacing and burglary in an Aurora case and was sentenced to six years in prison, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records. In February of 2009 he was found guilty in Arapahoe County of escape from fugitive hold and was sentenced to one year in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
