DENVER (KDVR) — There were some wild moments outside a parked RV where a police shooting broke out early Monday morning in the Elyria Swansea Neighborhood.
The chaos broke out after officers spotted two people pushing a motorcycle.
Denver police happened to be in the area checking out some 311 complaints when things took a turn for the worse. A teenager who lives in the RV said he’s still trying to figure out what happened in this industrial neighborhood filled with warehouses and businesses near East 48th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.
Denver Police shut down a stretch of Jackson Street and East 48th Avenue for hours near where police say they fired a rifle at an armed suspect. The incident started when police reportedly tried to contact two people pushing a motorcycle.
One of the suspects, believed to be armed, took off running and headed straight for an RV parked on Jackson Street. The recreational vehicle is where Bubba Sims calls home, and he wasn’t sure exactly what had happened.
“The first thing I think about is bullets shattering glass and going everywhere around the cats and around my mom,” Sims said.
RV resident worries for cats as police investigate shooting
Sims told FOX31 that his mother and her boyfriend were in the RV when the chaos broke out. He said it appeared the suspect was looking for a place to run and hide when the suspect burst in.
Sims said they don’t know the suspect.
“It’s (RV) just like right on the side of the street, I don’t know if it’s our unlucky day or their lucky day,” Sims said.
Police say they tried to contact the person in the RV.
“After some brief attempts at communication and bringing some less lethal to the scene, the party broke out the rear window of the RV and fled on foot,” Division Chief of Investigations Rick Kyle said.
That’s when investigators say an officer fired the rifle but did not hit anyone before arresting the suspect.
That left Sims worried about his home and pets. He was not able to get to his RV which had been cordoned off.
“I have five cats in there and the door is still open right now, so I don’t know if the cats are roaming around or if they are about to get impounded with the RV,” Sims said.
Later Sims learned his five cats were safe in the RV. They had huddled together out of sight in a cabinet and stayed there until the RV’s owners, including Bubba, came to look for them.
Sims told FOX31 he is so happy his cats are OK.
Police say one person was hurt trying to break out the rear window of the RV. What kind of charges might be filed against the suspects is still unclear. An outside agency will investigate the officer-involved shooting.
