Denver Police Department investigators work the scene of a mass shooting in Denver on June 13.The Associated Press
Nine people were wounded in a mass shooting early Tuesday in Denver in an area where basketball fans had been celebrating the Nuggets first NBA title win, police said. A wounded suspect was taken into custody.
Police believe multiple shots were fired in a dispute between several people roughly a mile from Ball Arena, where the Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat on Monday night.
The shooting happened at around 12:30 a.m. – about 3 1/2 hours after the game – and three of the wounded were in critical condition, the Denver Police Department said in a statement. The suspect, a man, was one of the seven people who suffered injuries believed to be non-life-threatening.
“As far as what led up to this altercation that resulted in the shots being fired, that’s still under investigation at this time,” police spokesperson Doug Schepman said. “It did occur in the area where we had the largest gathering of folks celebrating during the night.”
Yellow police tape sealed off the area overnight Tuesday as investigators scoured the scene, which was dotted with evidence markers and what appeared to be detritus left over from the celebrations, including an e-scooter and a green rental bike.
A small crowd was in the area at the time of the shooting, he said, but had “diminished quite a bit at that point.” He said the shooting was in a spot where a lot of people might have come out of bars after the game.
Police were interviewing witnesses and Schepman described the ongoing investigation “expansive.”
Eight people were hospitalized at Denver Health Medical Center – one in critical condition, one in fair and six in good condition, spokesperson Heather Burke said. She said questions about the two additional wounded people should be directed to police.