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Man dead after officer-involved shooting in southeast Denver Friday morning

By August 22, 2025 | updated 3 months ago

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FILE PHOTO
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Denver police shot and killed a man while responding to a domestic violence call in southeast Denver early Friday morning.

Officers initially responded to an shots fired call placed just after 4 a.m. Friday originating from an apartment complex in the 4900 block of East Donald Avenue, according to Denver Police Department Chief Ron Thomas in a media staging video published on the department’s social media account.

While officers were en route, dispatch also received a domestic violence call originating in the same area, Thomas said in the video.

As officers arrived, they saw a woman moving in their direction away from the complex, Thomas said. They also saw a man following a short distance away, but as he saw the three on-scene officers he turned and ran in the other direction.

Police chased him down, believing he was involved in the domestic violence call, and a struggle ensued as they worked to contain him, Thomas said. At one point, the man pulled out a revolver in his right hand. Officers struggled to contain the gun and one officer fired one shot, hitting the man.

“I’m sure at points in time during the struggle, (the gun) was pointed at officers,” Thomas said in the video. “There was a significant threat, the individual had his hand on the gun in a manner with which he could fire and there was a struggle over possession of that gun.”

The officer who fired the shot has only been on the job for a short period of time, Thomas said. The man was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities believe the man and woman were involved in the domestic violence call — with the man being the suspect pursuing her and the woman the victim, coming to them for help — but have been unable to verify whether they were also involved in the original shots fired call, Thomas said.

The apartment complex remains open and police are interviewing witnesses of the incident, Thomas said. The suspect is an Hispanic male; investigators have not yet been able to locate the woman they initially saw.

No officers were hurt in the incident. Investigators have recovered the revolver the man allegedly pulled during the struggle.

Nearby Highline Academy elementary school closed for the day, police confirmed. 

Per officer-involved shooting protocol, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Denver Police Homicide Unit and Colorado State Patrol will conduct an investigation into the incident under the supervision of the Office of the Independent Monitor, Thomas said. The results of the investigation will then be handed over to the Denver District Attorney for review.

Michael Braithwaite

Reporter

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