Denver police shoot, kill suspect while responding to domestic violence report

Police in Denver shot and killed a man during what officers have described as a domestic violence call early Friday morning. Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said officers were called to a domestic violence incident between a man and a woman in the area of South Dahlia Street and East Warren Avenue just after 4 a.m.

Thomas said officers were responding to a "shots fired" report that came in at 4:03 a.m. when they were asked to respond to a domestic violence call in the same area just minutes later at 4:12 a.m. 

That's when officers said they saw a woman coming towards them and a man who started to run away after he spotted the officers. Officers tried to catch up to the man, believing he was involved in the domestic violence situation. 

Thomas said the man had a gun and was struggling with officers as they tried to contain him. 

"During that struggle, one officer did fire one shot, striking the individual and the individual did go down and the ambulance was called immediately, where they were taken to Denver Health Medical Center and ultimately they were pronounced deceased," said Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas.

The suspect has not been identified except as a Hispanic man. Police said they haven't been able to contact the woman who initially was running toward officers. 

Officers said they are unsure whether the "shots fired" call is related to the domestic violence incident. 

"We don't know. We know that we were initially on scene because of the shots fired call and then very shortly after that is when the domestic violence call came in," said Thomas. 

Thomas said no officers were hurt in the altercation. 

The shooting happened near what seems to be a roofing business across the street from Highline Academy, a charter school in Denver Public Schools. Thomas said that he does not believe the school is involved in the incident, however classes were canceled at the school for Friday.