DENVER (KDVR) — It is very rare for Denver police to shoot unarmed suspects, according to department records.
Police in the Denver metro area have been involved in five officer-involved shootings in the past 10 days, with three of those shootings being in Aurora alone.
The first weekend of October saw three separate officer-involved shootings within the first two days of the month. Before this past weekend, two other officer-involved shootings took place across the metro.
The Denver Police Department provided records of the circumstances and outcomes of each shooting since 2017. The majority were armed with firearms.
Since 2017, DPD has recorded 72 individual suspects involved in shootings with Denver Police Department officers. Of them, 51 were armed with firearms at the time of the shooting.
Knives were the second most common weapon with 10% of the suspects.
Three suspects, or 4%, were unarmed. Two had no weapon listed.