Growing Denver-area Suburb Shaken by Deadly Weekend Shootings

DENVER — Four individuals were tragically shot and a female was taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds during a series of weekend violence in the Denver suburb of Commerce City. A person of interest in one of the incidents was later discovered deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot, law enforcement reported on Sunday.

Also within the Denver vicinity, an individual was fatally shot and three others sustained injuries during a pair of altercations on Sunday in the city of Aurora, officials disclosed.

Joanna Small, a spokesperson for the Commerce City Police Department, characterized it as “an extremely violent weekend” for the rapidly expanding community of approximately 70,000 residents, which is situated just northeast of Denver close to the city’s airport.

“We usually have around 5 or 6 homicides per year,” she mentioned. “We’re now looking at four homicides and an individual in critical condition in 39 hours … The fact that the incidents are not connected is even more perplexing, truly.”

Possible motives in the shootings were not disclosed.

The initial incident occurred on Friday night in the parking lot of a Commerce City 7-Eleven convenience store. A male and a female were shot, and the male passed away later. The female remained in critical condition in the hospital as of Sunday morning, according to Small.

Subsequently, officers attempted to approach a male who had been operating a truck involved in the shooting, but he fled and was discovered deceased due to suicide on Sunday morning.

On Saturday evening, a male was fatally shot in the parking lot of a public park with a pool in Commerce City. An individual was apprehended but Small declined to provide additional information.

Later that night, officers responded to gunfire exchanged during a gunfight that was identified by Commerce City’s gunshot monitoring system. The officers encountered a stolen vehicle with three individuals that absconded and subsequently crashed, as per the authorities. A male passenger with a gunshot wound was discovered deceased inside the vehicle.

A second passenger and the driver sustained injuries in the collision and were taken into custody. Officers returning to the scene of the gunfight found a male who had been shot deceased in the yard of a residence, Small mentioned.

The victims and others in that case were believed to be juveniles, she stated.

There was no known correlation between the shootings at the convenience store, the park and in the residential neighborhood, Small indicated. She refused to provide more details, citing ongoing investigations.

The fatal Aurora shooting took place at approximately 2 a.m. in a night club parking lot, authorities revealed. Information about the deceased was not immediately disclosed. A second victim, a 34-year-old male, sustained multiple gunshot wounds but managed to reach the hospital independently and was anticipated to recover, authorities disclosed. No arrests had been executed.

Around the same time, there was a shooting at an Aurora housing complex that resulted in a male being hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, authorities reported. A second male who was stabbed in that incident was expected to survive, authorities mentioned.