DENVER (KDVR) — A shelter-in-place order was issued in the Denver area Tuesday as deputies search for an allegedly armed suspect believed to be involved in a Westminster homicide over the weekend.
Interstate 70 was closed in both directions after Eagle County deputies and a homicide suspect still on the loose exchanged gunfire, according to the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office.
The shelter-in-place order is for areas west of Dotsero; Dotsero Mobile Home Park and Two Rivers were previously included but have since been cleared of the order.
The sheriff’s office said the incident started after Vail Public Safety Communications at around 4 a.m. Tuesday received a report to be on the lookout for the homicide suspect “reported to be armed and possibly accompanied by hostages” traveling near Gypsum.
An Eagle County sheriff’s deputy located a vehicle matching the description speeding west on I-70 and began pursuing it. The vehicle exited the interstate and got back on traveling eastbound, and deputies attempted a traffic stop.
The suspect refused to stop, the sheriff’s office said, so deputies deployed a spike strip.
Two people then got out of the vehicle, allegedly pointing a firearm at the deputies. Both the suspects and the deputies then exchanged gunfire, according to the sheriff’s office.
One person was injured in the shooting and taken to a hospital, but the sheriff’s office did not say who that person was or how badly they were injured, or whether is was the suspect’s gunfire or the deputies’ that injured them.
The remaining people in the suspect vehicle were then “contacted by law enforcement.”
The sheriff’s office said deputies with Eagle County Sheriff’s Office and the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, along with Colorado State Patrol and the Special Operations Unit, are still looking for the homicide suspect after he fled the scene.
The Westminster Police Department said the vehicle involved is related to a homicide investigation from over the weekend after a man was found dead in the parking lot of Wolff Run Park with several gunshot wounds.
The sheriff’s office advised people in the area to not approach him and to call 911 if they see him because he is believed to be armed and dangerous.
The sheriff’s office also advised community members not to stop for hitchhikers and to keep a safe distance from the scene.