DENVER (Reuters) -- A lone gunman shot four people to death and wounded three, including a police officer, on Monday in a Denver-area shooting spree that unfolded at several locations and ended with police killing the suspect, authorities said.
Investigators have yet to determine a motive for the rampage, which began around 5 p.m. when the gunman shot and killed two women and wounded a man near downtown Denver, Police Chief Paul Pazen said a news briefing.
The suspect then fled in a car and fatally shot a man in east Denver’s Cheesman Park neighborhood, before opening fire again in a west Denver community where no one was hit, Pazen said. According to Pazen, the suspect twice exchanged gunfire from his vehicle with Denver officers pursuing him, disabling a police cruiser.
From there, the gunman drove into the neighboring city of Lakewood, where he shot and killed a fourth person inside an unspecified business, according to Lakewood Police spokesman John Romero.
The gunman fled from Lakewood police when they attempted to pull him over and engaged in a running gun battle with officers before fleeing on foot and entering a hotel, where he shot and wounded a clerk, Romero said.
He then shot at police officers again, wounding one of them, before police shot him dead, Romero told reporters. Authorities did not publicly identify the suspect, and said circumstances leading to the shooting remained under investigation.
The conditions of the wounded officer and civilians were not immediately known, Romero said.
Anne Wilson, a shopper who was inside a cellular phone store in Lakewood when gunfire erupted nearby, told a Denver-based NBC-affiliate TV station she heard “seven or eight gunshots, and then like another set of maybe five more.”
Wilson said she and other customers were quickly ushered by store employees into a back room behind security gates until the danger had passed. “It is scary, scary times we live in,” she said.
Fatal Shooting of 14-Year-Old Girl by Police
Body-camera video released on Monday showed the chaotic, violent moments leading to the fatal Los Angeles police shooting of an assault suspect in a clothing store, and of a 14-year-old girl caught in the line of fire while hiding inside a dressing room.
The stray bullet that pierced the fitting-room wall, killing the girl, is believed to have come from the gun of the police officer seen firing three rifle shots at the suspect, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said in posting the video.
The girl who died in the Dec. 23 shooting has not been publicly named by police. But local media have identified her as Valentina Orellana-Peralta, who they said was shopping with her mother for a dress for her upcoming quinceanera, a 15th birthday celebration in Hispanic traditions.
The girl was born and raised in Santiago, Chile, and came to the United States six months ago with her mother to visit an older sister, the Los Angeles Times reported.
LAPD officers dispatched to the store were responding to several radio calls of an assault and possible shooting in progress, police said.
Video released on Monday by police showed the bearded, burly suspect, identified as Daniel Elena-Lopez, 24, entering the store with his bicycle and behaving erratically as he proceeds to menace and accost several shoppers.
At one point the man is seen in store-security video knocking a woman to the ground and dragging her across the floor away from her shopping cart as he repeatedly bludgeons her with a bicycle cable lock. The beating continues as several police officers are seen approaching the suspect with their guns drawn.
In a separate audio-video recording from bodycam footage of the policeman closest to the suspect, the officer can be heard shouting, “She’s bleeding, she’s bleeding,” just before he rounds a corner and confronts Elena-Lopez while the victim tries to crawl away.
The suspect, holding a large object in his hands, is seen standing with his back to the outside of the fitting room, a few yards (meters) from the bleeding victim as the officer raises his rifle and shoots the suspect dead.
The bludgeoned woman was subsequently hospitalized for injuries to her head and arms, police said.
In a statement accompanying the videos, LAPD spokesman Captain Stacy Spell said the 14-year-old girl, who had been in the dressing area with her mother, was found in the fitting room as police searched the store for additional victims.
The officer who fired the shots has been placed on administrative while an investigation is under way, an LAPD spokesman said. No firearm was recovered from the suspect, police said.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the slain girl died in the arms of her mother, who had been working on documentation to stay in the United States with her daughter permanently.