Denver police identified the man they shot and killed on Sunday outside a liquor store in Valverde. During a press conference Wednesday they said Shannon Wright, 29, had an assault-style rifle slung across his back when they encountered him on South Platte River Drive.
Officers had received a report of a robbery at a liquor store shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday. According to Division Chief Joe Montoya, Wright did not respond to officers' prompts to put his hands up and kept walking, at which point the police got out of their cars and "prepared tactically with their weapons." After Wright moved the rifle in what Montoya described as "an upward trajectory," both officers fired. Wright later died at a hospital.
Police did not say Wednesday how many shots they fired at Wright or whether he legally owned the gun he was carrying.
