One man is dead following an attempted carjacking, a car chase, and a shootout with police officers, a Denver Police Department official said Monday.
Nine officers shot at Cedric Vick, 22, who shot twice at officers first on Friday afternoon in Barnum, said Matt Clark, head of DPD's Major Crimes Division.
The shootout took place at First Avenue and Perry Street, ending an incident that began near a park in Westwood on Morrison Road. That's where Vick allegedly shot at one woman -- she was not injured -- before he tried to steal another woman's car with a toddler in the backseat, Clark said.
The woman was able to get the child out of the car seat, and neither she nor the child were injured despite an alleged attempt by Vick to shoot the adult.
Vick stole the car and led officers on a car chase, shooting at police once along the way. He crashed into one car -- again, no one was injured -- before crashing into a retaining wall at his final destination, where Clark said the suspect began acting "erratically."
According to DPD, Vick failed to obey officers' orders for about one minute, before he shot twice at officers, missing everyone. Nine officers fired back, killing Vick. Clark said nine officers "is a larger number than we typically see" involved in a single shooting event.
"That was an individual who posed a significant risk to the community and needed to be stopped," Clark said. "From the information that we initially had, the incidents ... were random encounters. So the thought was that you had an individual randomly shooting at people and taking this vehicle and shooting at officers. That needed to be stopped."
Clark called said the investigation is still in its early stages and that each officer will have to prove that their life was in danger to justify the shooting.
