Denver police shot an armed man they said refused to comply with commands after officers contacted him while he was taking trash from his truck to a dumpster in a parking lot.
The shooting occurred in the 800 block of South Oneida Street on Monday afternoon, according to the Denver Police Department.
Officers were returning to service from an unrelated call when they heard music blaring from a truck in a parking lot and saw a man walking back and forth between the truck and a dumpster to throw things away, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said at a news conference Monday.
Denver police initially reported the shooting occurred during a traffic stop.
Officers saw the man had a handgun tucked in his waistband at his back and began ordering him to put his hands on his head, Thomas said.
The man refused to comply with police commands and at one point made a “threatening motion” toward the gun at his back, Thomas said.
Two officers fired their weapons, and the man was hit in the upper body, Thomas said. Officers began rendering medical aid after the man went down, and he was transported to the hospital.
“I believe the officers felt a threat and they responded to that threat, and I’m thankful this person is going to survive, but again, this is yet another instance where a person has a gun and rather than following directions and dropping the gun or allowing the officers to safely recover that gun, decides to go for that gun and threaten officers with that gun, and it turns into an unfortunate result,” Thomas said.
The man is in critical condition and is in surgery, Thomas said, but is expected to survive. No officers were injured during the shooting.
The shooting will be investigated by the department and outside agencies, and the findings will be turned over to the Denver District Attorney’s Office.
Denver police officers who are involved in a shooting are put on a modified, non-patrol assignment and placed into a reintegration program, according to previous reporting.
Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.
