DENVER (KDVR) – Nine Denver police officers are on administrative leave after firing at a gunman who was shooting at random people on Friday.
Denver police said the suspect fired shots at a park then carjacked a woman and her toddler at gunpoint, then fired several times at responding officers.
“A uniformed officer was in the area. That officer quickly responded, located a frantic female who was holding an infant child. She relayed that an armed individual just stolen her vehicle at gunpoint,” Commander Matt Clark said. “As the subject was attempting to take her vehicle at gunpoint, she alerted him to presence of toddler in back seat of vehicle. She worked feverishly to remove that child from vehicle as he was attempting to steal her car. While she was trying to remove the child from the car seat, the subject fired one round at the female.”
The first officer on scene got the description of the car and the suspect. Responding officers spotted the car speeding through the intersection at Morrison Road.
“Then when the officers got behind that vehicle, he immediately began firing on them. That was an individual who posed a significant risk to the community and needed to be stopped. The officers were directly behind the target vehicle in 500 block South Quitman Street when the subject fired at least one round from the vehicle in the direction of the officers. Based on violent nature of the offenses the subject was involved in, officers were authorized to pursue fleeing subject,” Clark said.
The suspect was driving up to 60 mph through residential areas, finally losing control of the car and crashing at First Avenue and Perry Street.
“The subject immediately opened driver door and began acting erratically, kicking legs, waiving arms in and out of the car, reaching out, remained in vehicle, ignored repeated commands to show his hands and exit the vehicle. The officers worked to gain compliance from the subject for nearly a minute before he suddenly raised a handgun, pointed it toward several officers directly north of him, fired two rounds from the handgun. In response to that, nine Denver police officers discharged their weapons multiple times, striking the subject. He was transported and deceased,” Clark said.
Investigators later recovered a semi-automatic handgun from the suspect’s car. He has been identified as 22-year-old Cedrick Vick. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Investigators are still in the process of trying to determine how many times the officers fired, but they say each fired multiple times.
“They each have to independently establish either a first or third party defense case to why they discharged their weapons. Simply firing because another officer fired would not be sufficient,” Clark said.