An Aurora police officer shot and injured a suspect during a confrontation early Saturday at an apartment complex just across its boundary with Denver, according to police.
The suspect, whose injuries were not considered life-threatening, was being treated at a local hospital, said Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson.
The names of the man and the officer have not been released.
Several witnesses at Meridian Gardens Apartments, 955 S. Havana St., said they were awakened by numerous gunshots around 2 a.m.
“I was freaking out. I had no idea what was going on. Some chick was screaming,” said Taylor Bryant, 22, who lives next door to an apartment where loud music had been playing at the time of the incident. “I heard about six shots.”
The shots were sporadically fired over the span of a half-hour, she said. When police arrived, more shots were fired, Bryant said.
Jackson said when the Aurora officer arrived, the suspect was already firing shots. The officer fired one shot about 2:30 a.m., he said.
“We saw police with weapons drawn,” said Chris, a 26-year-old man who lives on the third floor. He asked that his last name not be used for fear of retaliation. A car had sped off just before police arrived, he said.
A man started screaming, “You shot me in the neck. You shot me in the neck.”
A woman identifying herself only as Miss Grace said the man pointed at one of the officers and said, “That one shot me right there. That’s my blood on the ground.”
The man was lying on the snow-covered sidewalk on the south side of courtyard in the U-shaped complex. Police had the man on his stomach and were cuffing his hands behind his back.
“He was a tall, skinny black man,” Chris said. “If you are shot in the neck and I’m hearing you screaming from the third floor, I’m thinking you’re grazed in the neck.”
Another clue about the nature of the injury was that the suspect stood and walked to an ambulance, Chris said.
Police had left tags on the brick walls near the complex’s laundry room, marking where bullets had struck, Chris said. There were more tags on a wall near the apartment where the loud party had been taking place.
The shooting happened on the Denver side of the city’s border with Aurora.
The Denver Police Department is investigating the shooting, Jackson said.
Bryant said she heard that no one in the apartment where the party took place was struck by bullets.
“I’m glad they’re safe,” Bryan said. “She has a kid.”
