Updated April 29, 2025: Denver District Attorney John Walsh announced no charges would be filed against Denver police officer Felipe Cervantes and that he was legally justified in this shooting. Read the decision letter .
Denver officers arrested two teenagers Monday night, one of whom was shot and injured while fleeing police, during a shots-fired investigation in the city’s West Colfax neighborhood.
Officers responded to reports of shots fired near Lowell Boulevard and West 13th Avenue at about 10:40 p.m. Monday, Denver police chief Ron Thomas said in a .
He said they found multiple shell casings and began to search the area for suspects. Officers headed east into Paco Sanchez Park and, about an hour after the first shots were fired, found a group of four teenagers.
Thomas said officers asked the teens to stop, but the group began to run away.
One teenager dropped a gun and a second pulled one out, Thomas said. That’s when an officer fired “a number of shots,” hitting the 17-year-old who allegedly pulled out a gun.
Thomas said those two were taken into custody, but investigators are still searching for the others.
He said it’s still unclear if the group is connected to the original shots fired near 13th and Lowell, but investigators will be able to compare the shell casings found in the area with the guns that the men were carrying.
Paramedics took the unidentified teenager shot by the Denver officer to the hospital, where he is expected to survive, Thomas said.
The police shooting is under investigation by Denver’s Homicide Unit, Colorado State Patrol and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
