Over the span of a few days at the end of last month, Denver Police Department officers shot two men holding non-lethal guns.

Both suspects in the officer-involved shootings on Aug. 22 and 25, respectively, possessed guns police thought were “real” but turned out not to be, Denver police officials said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

One of the men died.

“That is of significant concern … apparently this is a growing trend and it will be something we continue to track,” said DPD Chief Ron Thomas during the conference. “These look so closely to a real weapon that I wouldn’t expect any officer to act differently.”

The shooting on Aug. 22 took place after police responded to a domestic violence call in the 4900 block of East Donald Avenue around 4 a.m., eventually chasing down a man they suspected was involved 48-year-old Javier Nava-Carbajal. During the struggle with police, Nava-Carbajal produced the gun and allegedly reached for an officer’s holstered firearm, prompting them to fatally shoot him. It turned out to be a replica gun, though it was loaded with real bullets.

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

The Aug. 25 incident occurred as police responded to a 911 call of a man aiming a gun at motorists around at the intersection of West Alameda Avenue and South Lipan Street around 8:30 a.m. Officers eventually located the suspect, 62-year-old Allen Scott, laying down next to a shopping cart holding his belongings and holding the firearm.

After a prolonged standoff, during which officers repeatedly told the man to put the gun down and his hands up — per body camera footage recorded during the incident, police shot him. It turned out to be a BB gun. He was taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds, but is expected to survive. 

Denver police shoot suspect pointing weapon at motorists

The gun used on Aug. 22 was a replica revolver loaded with six rounds of nine-millimeter ammunition, an aspect of the case police have found unusual, said Cmdr. Matt Clark with the DPD’s Major Crimes Division during the conference.

 “Somebody put live ammunition in that weapon,” Clark said. “There was no way that weapon was capable of discharging it.”

Clark noted during the conference that Nava-Carbajal did say during the struggle with police about the gun not being real, but added that the statement was made in the height of the conflict and while the suspect was reaching for an officer’s firearm.

“Given the height of that struggle and everything that was going on, it would have been very difficult to interpret his actions as that being a fake firearm based on the way he was trying to maintain it,” Clark said.

The non-lethal firearm carried by Scott on Aug. 25 was a replica Walther BB gun, Clark said. 

Officials noted that both men did not cooperate with police instructions to give themselves up when commanded and officers only shot them due to the imminent threat they thought they faced.

The woman in the alleged domestic violence incident Aug. 22 shooting has yet to be found, police said, and officials are still trying to learn more about each incident. Anyone with information about either is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.