A lone gunman has shot and killed four people during a shooting spree around Denver in Colorado, which ended with police killing the suspect, authorities said.
Authorities said late on Monday that the suspect was among the dead. The suspect, who is yet to be identified publicly, went on a shooting rampage in at least seven different locations across Denver and Lakewood in the evening.
Two women were killed and one man was injured in the first shooting near 1st Avenue and Broadway, Denver Police Department Chief Paul Pazen said. Another man was killed in a shooting near the intersection of 12th Avenue and Williams Street.
Both of these shootings were reported within two hours before a Lakewood officer was shot and injured.
“To see this type of spree take place is not normal in our community,” Pazen said. “This one individual was responsible for this very violent crime spree that took place this evening.”
Police in Lakewood said two people were also shot to death in their area, including the suspected shooter. Another person was injured. Police are searching the area near Target in Belmar for possible additional suspects.
Lakewood police confirmed that one of their officers was involved in a shooting battle with the suspect in the Belmar shopping area on Monday night.
“We have every reason to believe that several instances in Denver are connected, that happened before our incidents here in Lakewood,” said John Romero, spokesman for Lakewood Police.
Gun violence has escalated in the United States during the Christmas and New Year holiday seasons.
Three teenagers were killed and a fourth was critically wounded when another teen shot them at a gas station in Dallas, Texas, police said Monday.
The shooting happened Sunday night in the Dallas suburb of Garland and was captured on surveillance video, the Garland Police Department said. Investigators are still trying to determine a motive.
Many gun control advocates, who had hoped that Joe Biden would take action to rein in the nation’s epidemy of gun violence, are now feeling disappointed with the Democratic president.
They had made generous donations to Biden’s presidential campaign and many other Democratic campaigns during the 2020 election, hoping that a Democrat-held Congress could pass widespread gun control laws.
But a year after taking office, Biden has yet to deliver legislation that gun control campaigners had expected to see.
Source: Agencies
