SWAT
officers who stormed a Colorado home where a gunman had holed up found a
horrific scene – four dead bodies including that of the gunman.
Police
said the armed man fired shots at officers Saturday from a second-story window
before officers killed him. Once inside, they found the bodies of three other
adults.
The
suspect, whose name was withheld by police, held officers at bay for nearly six
hours after neighbors reported gunfire at 3 a.m. inside the modest townhome in
the Denver suburb of Aurora, said police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson.
It
wasn’t known if officers shot the suspect or if he shot himself.
Investigators
said two men and a woman appeared to have been killed before officers arrived.
The
suspect shot at police who approached the front of the home with an armored
vehicle and who fired tear gas around 8:15 a.m. He was killed when he fired at
officers from the second-story window about 45 minutes later, Carlson said.
“After we arrived on scene, there were no more
shots fired up until he fired at us,” Carlson said. “During this time he was
all over the house. He moved furniture. He was throwing things. He was
agitated. He was irrational.”
A
large front window was missing in the two-story townhome, the window’s
mini-blinds in disarray. Bullet holes marked two upstairs windows, and
neighbors milled about outside.
A
fifth person escaped unharmed and called police to report that she saw three
people inside the home who “appeared lifeless,” said Carlson, who declined to
elaborate about the woman’s escape.
A
motive for the killings was unknown, and police had yet to say what weapon or
weapons were used. Investigators wearing gloves and carrying evidence bags were
going over the crime scene.
Police
declined to release the victims’ names.
“We have an idea of who they are, but we obviously
want to confirm their identities with the coroner,” said Carlson, who declined
to release the relationship between the victims and the shooter.
Officers
evacuated neighbors’ homes during the standoff and used a bullhorn to
communicate with the gunman, urging him to surrender.
Next-door
neighbor Melissa Wright, a nurse who treated victims of the July movie theater
shootings in Aurora, said she was in her second-floor bedroom when she saw the
gunman start shooting from his own bedroom window. She said she didn’t know
what he was shooting at, and that she quickly dropped to the floor.
“I hit the ground pretty fast,” Wright said.
Wright
said she slid on her belly to the first floor of her home and told police what
she saw upstairs. Officers quickly entered her home.
Wright
said she knew the gunman as Sonny Archuleta – a name used by police officers
trying to negotiate with the man with the bullhorn. Wright said the townhome
may have been inhabited by the gunman, the gunman’s wife, her father and
another man.
The
shootings occurred about four miles southeast of the Aurora Mall, where 12
people were killed and dozens were wounded by a gunman at a midnight showing of
“The Dark Knight Rises” on July 20. The man charged in that shooting, James Holmes,
goes to court Monday for a preliminary hearing in which prosecutors will
present their case against him.
The
July shootings prompted Gov. John Hickenlooper – just before the Newtown,
Conn., massacre – to say it is time to debate gun control. It’s expected to be
a heated topic at the Colorado Legislature this year.
Aurora,
just east of Denver, is one of Colorado’s largest and most diverse cities with
more than 335,000 residents. It is home to Buckley Air Force Base as well as
the sprawling University of Colorado Health Sciences Center campus, where James
Holmes studied neuroscience before the movie theater shootings.
And
I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians:
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Terrors
shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
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His
strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction [shall be] ready at his side.
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It
shall devour the strength of his skin: [even] the firstborn of death shall
devour his strength.
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His
confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to
the king of terrors.
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