Photo: JASON CONNOLLY / AFP / Getty Images
A lone shooter shot a police officer several times, after she begged him to put down the gun , witnesses claimed.
A series of shootings affected Denver and Lakewood, Colorado on Monday, leaving at least five dead and three injured.
The gunman fatally killed two women and one man in two separate shootouts before swapping shots with police, according to the Denver Post.
Shot another in Lakewood, before allegedly shooting an employee inside the Hyatt House hotel.
An officer was shot moments later when the suspect allegedly tried to flee. The cop is in surgery, according to the police.
Witnesses told Fox Network 31: “We saw the guy, he was a tall man, with blond hair, wearing a raincoat.
“She yelled at him to ‘put the gun down!’ She screamed, ‘put the gun down’ and he turned around, pulled the gun out and shot her right in front of us, multiple times. ”
The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. It is not known whether he was killed by officers shooting.
Lakewood Police Department spokesman John Romero said: “ I’m still not sure if it was caused by Lakewood police or not, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. ”
He added: a rough day for the Lakewood police family, obviously when this happens to one of our own.
“We just ask everyone in our community for their thoughts and prayers, for that agent and his family.”
Police believe the gunman fired at seven different locations in the Denver metro area.
Authorities have called the series of shootings a “murder spree.”
Two people were shot near the intersection of East 1st Avenue and Broadway shortly after 5 p.m. in Denver.
A ho mbre was shot and killed in the Cheeseman Park neighborhood before another person was shot and killed in Lakewood.
SWAT teams entered the Nearby Nordstrom Rack store around 10 pm local time as officers searched buildings as a precaution.
Denver police have confirmed the shootings are related, but officers are unsure how the incidents were linked.
Paul Pazen said: “Seeing this kind of revelry is not normal in our community.
” This individual was responsible for this wave of very violent crimes that took place tonight. ”
A woman was at an Xfinity store when she heard a “popping” noise outside.
She told him to CBS4: “It was like a gunshot and then maybe five or six more s and a couple more after that. ”
The woman added that Xfinity staff led shoppers to the back room.
Lili Gilbert , 18 years old, was working at the Nordstrom Rack store when the shooting occurred.
Police told employees to lock the doors, as customers and staff crowded the back of the store, according to USA Today.
He claimed that he saw the body of a man dumped outside the store near the hotel.
She said: “I was scared because the body was there.”
Anne Wilson, who was shopping in Lakewood when the shooting broke out, told a Denver-based NBC-affiliated station that she heard “from seven to eight shots. ”
He said that buyers took refuge in a back room until it passed the risk.
She added: “It is a terrifying time we live in.”
Police confirmed that there is no threat to the community and the motive for the shooting is unknown.
No arrests have been made, according to officers.
Pazen said: “We have to investigate really and find out what was the motivation behind it. ”
Romero added:“ At this point, we don’t think there are any additional security issues for the public. ”
There have been 687 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The investigation group defines a mass shooting as an incident with four or more people injured or killed.
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