On the evening of July 1, a pair of Denver police officers pulled up to the 4300 block of Del Rio Court to investigate fireworks in the northeast Denver neighborhood.
Moments later, one of the officers shot a man, hitting him in the leg.
On Wednesday, police said the man had a gun in his waistband and the officer believed there was an imminent threat. The department also released footage from both of the responding officers’ body-worn cameras.
The video shows it took just 15 seconds for the situation to escalate from an ordinary police call to an officer firing two shots, leaving a man writhing in pain and begging to be taken to the hospital. Police still have not named the man who was shot or the officers involved.
Local authorities have also not said whether the man faces any criminal charges.
What happened leading up to the shooting
The two officers arrived just after 9 p.m., with both quickly stepping out of the vehicle. The officers appeared to be a male and a female in the body-worn footage.
“Everyone over here,” the male officer said to several people who had gathered around a table at the end of a home’s driveway, spotting a mortar tube for fireworks. One man walked away, toward the garage.
“Hey, white tanktop, come on, what are you walking away from as soon as the cops show up?” the male officer said as the man kept walking.
“Get your [expletive] hand out of your waistband,” the male officer shouted. “Hands up, hands up!”
Seconds later, the male officer fired two gunshots and the man staggered to the ground. The officer fired as the man turned his head, police said.
Officer who fired believed the man was 'actively arming himself'
“As the officer followed, he observed the individual move both hands towards his waistband, lift his shoulders, and looked back over his right shoulder towards the officer,” Commander Matt Clark said at a Wednesday press conference. “The officer then saw the individual draw a firearm from his waist beneath his shirt, noticing the clear outline of the weapon pressing against the fabric.”
Those details are not clear in the video released on Wednesday. Police partially blurred the images of the man to obscure his identity.
The officer “observed that the individual was not attempting to flee, but appeared to be actively arming himself,” Clark said.
Police said they found a loaded 10mm Glock handgun near the driveway, saying it was the same gun the man had in his waistband. There was no evidence the man had fired the gun.
Other officer on scene reacted in shock
In the video, the shooting is met with gasps.
“Wait, does he have a gun?” the female officer asked.
“He just threw it!” the male officer responded.
The man who was shot writhed in pain.
“I don’t have nothing, bro, please take me, please take me to the hospital, please take me to the hospital, please take me to the hospital, oh my God,” he said.
The female officer urged her counterpart to call an ambulance.
“OK, let me get him in cuffs,” the female officer said. “Call it out, call it out.”
The man asked, again and again, to be taken to the hospital,
“Wait, wait, wait,” the female officer said. “We’re gonna get you some help.”
Investigation underway as man's condition is unclear
The man’s condition is unclear, with a local hospital declining to release information to Denver police.
The investigation is ongoing. It’s being run by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Colorado State Patrol, the Denver District Attorney’s Office and DPD’s homicide unit. The two officers are going through a reintegration process.
It was the sixth officer-involved shooting of the year for DPD.
