A teen fired a gun at a uniformed Aurora officer in a “road rage” incident, police said, before being involved in a standoff that ended with his death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
: Large police presence in the area of S. Elkhart/S. Fairplay (Preserve at City Center apartments). SWAT is attempting to contact a man wanted on suspicion on shots fired earlier today. A reverse-911 was sent to residents in the complex to shelter in place. Updates here.
— Aurora Police Dept (@AuroraPD)
The incident began just before 8 a.m. Thursday in a fast-food parking lot near Mississippi Avenue and Chambers Road, .
An off-duty officer, in uniform, was driving her personal car in the parking lot after her shift ended when a red Toyota sedan exiting a drive-thru cut the officer off. The officer “honked” at the sedan, police said.
The officer headed south on Chambers Road, and the driver of the sedan crossed opposing lanes of traffic to cut the officer off, the release said. The officer drove westbound on Mississippi with the driver of the red sedan “chasing” her.
As the officer drove southbound on Interstate 225 and between Mississippi and Iliff avenues, the driver of the red sedan pulled up next to the officer’s vehicle. A front-seat passenger in the sedan rolled down the window, “leaned halfway outside of the car and fired multiple rounds at the officer,” police said.
The officer, who was not injured, noted the plate on the sedan and called 911.
“Patrol officers responded to the registered address of the vehicle owner, which was located in the 1000 block of South Elkhart Way, near Mississippi Avenue and Sable Boulevard,” police said.
Officers identified the driver of the sedan, a 26-year-old man, and took him into custody. Meanwhile, the suspected shooter barricaded himself in a third-story apartment, police said.
Officers tried to contact the suspect, to negotiate a surrender, to no avail, police said. At 10:24 a.m., police fired a 40mm foam projectile against the side of the apartment building. “Shortly thereafter, a sound consistent with a gunshot was heard from inside the apartment,” the release said.
SWAT members and negotiators were at the scene for several hours on Thursday. Some nearby residents were evacuated, and a shelter-in-place order was made for additional area residents.
“At 2:20 p.m., SWAT entered the apartment and discovered the suspect dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” police said. “Early information indicates the suspect is a 16-year-old male.”
The Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office release the teen’s identity after positive identification and notification of family, police said. The identities of the driver of the sedan and the off-duty officer involved in the morning incident were not released Thursday.
From 3:30 to 4:15 p.m., southbound I-225 between Mississippi and Iliff was closed to search for ballistic evidence. Officers recovered several shell casings consistent with a weapon recovered from the apartment.
Earlier in the day police had mistakenly identified the teenager as a man. An investigation is ongoing.
