 update on two officer involved shootings. I'm gonna turn it over to Matt Clark here in a minute to provide those overviews. But before I do that, I wanna first acknowledge that one person did lose their life and another person was seriously injured in these two incidents. And also these two incidents, I think, illustrate the challenge that we face here in Denver with far too many guns in our community, individuals that are inclined to use them. And I think it also highlights the importance of our officers wearing their safety equipment while they're out serving their community. So I understand that you all have had an opportunity to view the video and we'll certainly take questions at the end. So Matt. Thank you, good afternoon. I'm Commander Matt Clark with the Denver Police Department's Major Crimes Division. I appreciate you being here and giving us an opportunity to provide an update on the two officer involved shooting incidents that occurred on Wednesday, June 7th, 2023. Just for order, I'll run through the first incident in its entirety, show some still photos, answer any questions and then we can transition into the other incident as well and Chief Thomas will be available. This is intended to be a follow-up briefing based upon information that we've gathered after interviewing witnesses, allowing the officers time to heal and recover so they can provide an interview to the investigators as well as analyzing evidence that was collected at the scene. There may be information I don't have at this point. There also may be information I cannot disclose based on the filing on a juvenile offender which may limit some of the information I'm able to offer. But to the degree we're able, we'll answer any questions at the end. On Wednesday, June 7th, 2023 at about 4.12 in the morning, a uniformed Denver police officer was conducting directed patrol at the quality in located at 2601 Zunei Street. The officer was seated in the driver's seat of his marked police vehicle directly in front of the front entrance of the hotel. The officer had been at the location for several minutes when a male exited the front doors of the hotel and walked directly towards the officer's vehicle. Suddenly without warning or prior interaction, the male produced a firearm from his jacket and began firing directly at the officer through the passenger side of the vehicle, striking the officer multiple times. The officer immediately exited his vehicle and moved to the back of the patrol car. The male went around the front of the officer's vehicle and continued firing upon the officer. While attempting to use his police vehicle as cover, the officer returned fire, striking the male multiple times. The injured officer called for additional assistance from other officers as well as ambulances to respond to the location. Responding officers took the male into custody. He was promptly assessed by a paramedic crew and transported to Denver Health Medical Center where he was later pronounced deceased. Additional officers attended to the injured officer and promptly loaded him into a police vehicle and transported him to the hospital for assistance. He has since been released from the hospital. Through the investigation, we've determined that the suspect drove to the location and parked on the west side of the building at 4.02 a.m. He remained near his vehicle for several minutes before walking around the building. He went in front of the officer's vehicle and directly into the hotel. At that point, there was no interaction between the officer and the individual. While inside the hotel, the male inquired about renting a room from the clerk before determining the cost was too high for him. He walked out of the hotel through the same main doors where the officer was previously parked and approached the officer's vehicle, discharging his firearm multiple times. After talking with numerous witnesses and people who knew the suspect, we have not been able to determine what led to him ambushing the officer. Investigators determined the suspect fired 18 rounds from a Glock 26 9-millimeter handgun. The suspect had an additional magazine which was holding 16 rounds. The suspect was also found to be in possession of a loaded 38-caliber revolver which was not fired during the incident. Firearm traces are being completed to determine whether the suspect was the owner of those firearms. The involved officer discharged 17 rounds from his duty handgun towards the suspect. The offender in this case has been identified a 35-year-old Nicholas Lendrum, L-E-N-D-R-U-M. His date of birth is 12-3 of 1987. I feel extremely fortunate that the injured Denver police officer was wearing a ballistic vest. The officer was struck by three of the rounds that were fired by the individual. All three impacted the officer's ballistic bulletproof vest. While the rounds were stopped by the officer's vest, he experienced significant bruising and pain at the impact sites from the rounds that were fired. He has since been released from the hospital and continues to recover. The injured officer who discharged his weapon is a corporal assigned to District 6. A corporal in the Denver Police Department is a field training officer who is responsible for training recruit officers and also serves as a line-level supervisor. That officer has been with the department since 2013 and has not been involved in a previous police shooting incident. The officer's body-worn camera was not activated during the event but was activated by the officer after the shooting incident. The directed patrol action that the officer was taking at the hotel when he was ambushed was not an action that required activation of the body-worn camera under our policy. The officer did, however, have the presence of mind to activate the camera after the shooting incident and as he was waiting for additional officers to respond. The involved officer will complete the department's reintegration program before returning to his patrol assignment. The investigation of this incident and the next incident that I'll speak to is being investigated by the Colorado Bureau of Investigations, the Colorado State Patrol, the Denver Police Department's homicide unit and the Denver District Attorney's Office. It's also overseen by the Office of the Independent Monitor which is a civilian oversight entity. Before we take questions, I'll briefly show some still shots. Again, the Chief described that we've already released a video for those who choose, who haven't seen the video or choose not to watch it. We do want to give a perspective and have some images from that were captured. There was surveillance video that we obtained from the hotel, from the canopy, directly in front of the front doors. This particular image shows the officer seated in the driver's seat of his patrol vehicle. The offender had just exited the door. The door is still closing to the hotel. He has retrieved his firearm and that is a muzzle flash from the firearm that's directed directly at the officer. This is a photograph of the Glock 26 9-millimeter handgun that the offender used to shoot the officer with. This image is the revolver that he had, again, not fired during the incident. I'd like to provide a photograph of the officer's vest. There's two specific defects noted in the vest that were impacted by bullets. It's this middle one in the vest here and then the one in the upper right. This defect here is just a tear and it was not associated with this incident. But this would have been the back panel of the officer's vest. Any questions about this incident before we move on? Suspect, has there anything been turned up in his background and his history? He would lead you guys to believe that he acted this way? Again, we've talked to roommates, people who knew him and nobody's been able to give us a reason, a cause for him ambushing the officer that day. Was he from Denver? He was not, he did not live in Denver. As far as you, as far as you determine, does he have any kind of criminal background? I'm not clear on specifically his criminal background but typically we don't speak to those during these sessions. What was he, Denver, from Colorado? He does have a residence in Colorado. Can you say which town? I'm not positive, I don't want to. So the wounds were to the officer's back? He had two, he sustained two injuries to his back and one to his front, lower abdomen area. That's what we suspect that the initial one impacted the officer on the front and then as he rolled and moved to get out of the vehicle that he exposed his back and that's what would have been struck by the offender's gunfire. That's correct. We believe so. Now there are rounds, there's gunfire that you'll see from the video as the officer is exiting the vehicle and trying to move to the back but the best of the officer recalls those were impacts were while he was in the car and exiting the vehicle. What the response time was? Immediate, that's an immediate call for help. Right, were the under officers nearby? There were officers nearby the area and they were there very quickly. Did the officer say if the suspect said any words at all? When we spoke with the officer there, he described having no interaction, no verbal exchange with the individual at any point. Yeah, the officers were doing specific patrol there. It's somewhat of a routine patrol for the safety, the residents there, for the community. It's just that time four, 10, that time in the morning is typically a lower call load and the officers are providing specific patrol in different areas. So I think it's fair to acknowledge that that particular location is being used as a temporary emergency shelter for migrants but it's also an active hotel and so in working with other city entities we are providing extra patrol at that location. And she, are police cars at different shelters around town? Certainly. That kind of was going on. Certainly. Was there any elevated criminal activity in that area in addition? No, no, I think it's just a precaution that we're taking for the safety of the migrants as well as the safety of the community. So, thank you. The next incident occurred the same day, excuse me, about 728 p.m. On Wednesday, June 7th, 2023, just before 730, Denver police officers received a shots spot or alert indicating seven gunshots had been fired in the area of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Dexter Street. Shortly after that call or that notification, a call was received by the communication center from a caller who reported hearing shots fired in the area as well. Officers promptly responded to that call and located spent shell casings in the alley as directed by the shots spot or alert. While investigating for damage and injuries from the gunfire, the officers were flagged down by a citizen who advised he observed the individual who was firing a gun. He specifically described that person as a black male wearing red pants who was in the company of a black female. That individual advised the officers that the two were last seen heading towards Martin Luther King Boulevard. Almost a minute after that interaction, officers located a black male wearing red pants, riding an electric scooter with a black female near MLK and Elm. The two exactly matched the description that was provided to the officers and the two that were contacted were in the immediate vicinity of the shots spot or incident. The uniformed officers and marked police vehicles drove towards the individual with their emergency lights flashing on their vehicle. The officers exited their vehicle in order to mail off the scooter that he was riding. The mail disregarded the officers' commands and began fleeing on the scooter. Officers followed in their vehicle and pulled on alongside the mail near the baseball field on Elm Street, again directing him to stop. The mail went behind the officer's vehicle and began going eastbound on Martin Luther King Boulevard away from the officers. He then cut between two multifamily housing buildings and ran towards the east west alley between Martin Luther King Boulevard and Thrill Place. The officers parked their vehicle at the end of the alley near Forest Street and ran towards the suspect. Upon seeing the officers, the mail turned around and began running from the officers. The pursuing officer who previously had not drawn his firearm recognized the mail was holding a handgun in his right hand. The officer then drew his firearm and ordered the mail to drop the weapon he was holding. The mail began running southbound between the houses with the officers chasing behind. And as he was running, the mail turned towards the officer, took the gun from a one-handed right-handed grip to a two-handed pistol-style grip and discharged the firearm at the uniformed officer striking him once. The officer immediately returned fire striking the suspect multiple times. Officers quickly took the suspect into custody and he was transported by ambulance to the hospital for treatment. The officer was transported to the hospital by other officers who were on scene. The suspect has since been released in the hospital and is in the custody of the Gilliam Youth Center. Through the investigation, it was determined that the mail suspect fired his handgun at least one time at the uniformed officer. The ShotSpotter system captured the exchange of gunfire between the officer and the subject, noting 10 rounds were fired at that time. And unload of the officer's firearm indicated he discharged his weapon eight times. The firearm the suspect possessed was a Taurus nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun. That firearm had a drum-style magazine which was capable of holding 50, five-zero rounds of nine-millimeter ammunition. A shell casing that was recovered from this shooting scene was forensically matched to the shell casings recovered at the original ShotSpotter location near Dexter Street. Because the individual is a juvenile and until he's filed on or direct filed into district court, I'm not able to identify him. The officer was struck one time by the round that was fired by the suspect. And after close examination, it was determined that the round struck a magazine that was on the officer's duty belt that he was wearing around his waist. It appears that either shrapnel from the magazine or a fragment for the bullet impacted the officer's lower left abdomen side. The officer sustained significant bruise and pain from that impact. Again, we're fortunate the officer didn't sustain further injury and he's been released from the hospital where he continues to recover. The injured officer who discharged his weapon as a patrol officer assigned to the patrol network investigations team in district two. That team assists with narcotics investigations as well as conducting proactive patrols targeting violent crime hotspots. The officer has worked for the department since 2017 and was involved in one prior police shooting incident in 2019 where he was also shot at. The officer's body camera was activated during the event and captured the interaction with the suspect. And the involved officer will complete the department's reintegration program before returning to his patrol assignment. One last thing before I go into the videos, the department recognizes and wants to acknowledge the strong language that was used by the officers during their interaction with the suspect. And that language, the nature of the commands that were given to the individual will be examined as part of the administrative review of this case. I'll take some, I'll show you some still shots that we captured from the body worn camera. This is between the two multifamily buildings. There's a grass pathway. Martin Luther King Boulevard is the street to the back. The officer's coming in from the alley. This shows the blackmail offender wearing red pants as described. He is, he was previously moving away from the officer. He turns his body, he's got the firearm in the two-handed pistol grip and he just charges around at the officer. And again, another photo of the officer pointing the, or excuse me, of the offender pointing the firearm directly at the officer. And you can see how closely they are at that point. This is the firearm the individual possessed. Again, a tourist nine-millimeter firearm with a 50-round drum magazine. There's a better photo of the magazine. And as I described, the magazine that the officer was carrying in his duty belt was impacted and just shows the impact under the metal magazine, the officer was carrying. Any questions I can answer? Did the drum have the drums? When we recovered it, it was not loaded. There was no, there was no more ammunition in the drum. So ShotSpotter captured seven rounds. We recovered six shell casings. ShotSpotter's audio only, or is there a video of the ShotSpotter? It's only audio, correct. How old is the juvenile? 17 years old. Is there anything about his background you can share? No, sir. I'll ask you, you mentioned strong words from that video that the hearing officers say. What was your perspective when you watched the video and you heard what they were saying? You know, certainly not consistent with our well-communicated department values. And certainly that's something that we will address. But I think right now our focus is on his recovery and his healthy reintegration. Certainly. Two violent incidents in one day. I mean, are criminals, are they becoming more emboldened? Are we hearing about it more? I mean, you obviously been in law enforcement for a long time. What are we seeing? Well, certainly in my 34-year career, we've not seen two officers injured, two officers involved in shootings in just one calendar day. Yes, as I've talked before, there are far too many guns in our community, far too many individuals that feel emboldened to use them during the daylight, in large crowds, even very near where police officers are known to be. So certainly that's a challenge that we need to continue to address. How do you do that? Well, you know, we've already, you know, put in place a violence mitigation plan, specifically for the lower downtown area. There are also other areas around the city, East Colfax and other hotspots that we've identified and we've actually employed some very successful strategies there. Certainly there's more work to do in other areas and we will continue to review data, continue to come together to discuss current strategies and see if there are ways to alter those strategies in order to get in front of that violence. This is a strange question, but how common is it to find a gun with that gun? Well, more common today than it was once before, certainly, not an everyday occurrence. I mean, certainly, you know, we've recovered over a thousand illegal guns just so far this year and a handful of them have had large capacity magazines. Well, you know, I think one thing that I would push for is for safe storage and responsible ownership, excuse me, because we are finding far too many weapons that are, excuse me, stolen out of vehicles, stolen out of homes because they're not properly secured. You know, there are a number of tragedies that we've traced back to guns that were stolen or guns that were irresponsibly maintained to include some suicides. Matt, you wanna talk about that? Yeah, she is not in custody. We don't anticipate she'll face charges. We are still looking to interview her if she'd cooperate. And the vehicle that the first suspect drove to the backside of the hotel, is that a stolen vehicle? It was not a stolen vehicle. One clarification on that, I know we keep asking about location, but lives in Colorado, would you say, lives in the metro area, has a residence in the metro area? I believe it's in Weld County. I'm just not confident on which city he lives in out there. So there was, and we looked into that. We didn't find any defects indicating damage to property. We didn't find any houses that had been shot. We didn't find any injured victims as well. So that investigation, the investigation of that weapon discharge will be kind of bundled into this officer-in-ball shooting since the casing is forensically matched. There was a lot of adrenaline going through that situation and use that kind of language. Some people might find it like, well, if I was in that situation, I might use some of that language too. I mean, it was a bad situation. Isn't it okay for an officer to use language like that if it's such a, that situation has taken place? Certainly. I think there's an understanding that this is a traumatic incident and certainly a life-threatening incident. And so certainly certain actions, certain language is understandable and even acceptable at times. What sort of penalty can an officer face if an investigation finds that that language was unacceptable? Well, I think first we need to really kind of analyze all of the facts of the case and get a sense of the justification for the language, the intent for the language before we start talking about penalties. But certainly, again, the thing that we're most concerned about right now is the criminal investigation as well as the recovery of that officer. In the second incident. He was. Is it true that officers are not required to wear safety vests? It's optional? So it is strongly encouraged. And I think that the overwhelming majority of our officers do wear their safety equipment is something that we continue to push from the first day of the academy well throughout their careers. The Zuna shooting. You said the body camera was not activated. Can you walk me through that a little bit? You said because he was at a directed patrol. Yeah. So he was just sitting in his vehicle and there had, you know, so just sitting in your vehicle on a directed patrol does not require you by policy to activate your body-worn camera. Certainly had there been an interaction, had there been somebody that would come up to the car to make a complaint, to try to file a criminal complaint or something like that. There would have been a need for him to activate his camera to record that conversation, record that interaction, but he had no interaction with anyone as he was there. And so no requirement to activate that body-worn camera. Again, I think it's just a credit to his presence of mind to after a significant gun battle in which he was struck three times that he still activated his body-worn camera so that everything from 30 seconds prior to that point and beyond gets recorded. Would it be fair to say he was ambushed? I mean, that's kind of- Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, there was nothing that indicated that this individual had any intent to do that. He went into the hotel, quickly came out and immediately began shooting at the officer. Was there a video inside the hotel that reported the interaction between that suspect and whoever he spoke with inside? We do have a video from inside the hotel. I'm not sure what perspective it gives us. I don't recall specific to the interaction with the clerk. And I don't believe there's audio associated with that. And will there be a toxicology on the body being performed? Yes, that's part of the autopsy and the post-mortem exam conducted by the medical examiner's office. We expect a toxicology, typically eight to 10 weeks. Did you and I street shooting with the weapons registered to the suspect? So we are waiting on firearms, traces on both those firearms to determine ownership. Was it pretty well documented that this was a migrant shelter? Was it out there with the public have access to that and know about it? I don't know. I don't have the answer to that question, obviously. The city administration has activated that location and others as safety emergency shelters for the migrants that are coming into our city. Again, other than just being able to find safe shelter for folks, there's not been a significant safety challenge. And chief, because of them serving the migrant? No, no. We know where the juvenile got the forest from because there were ownership established on that one. Again, we're waiting on firearms, traces on that, but I'm not clear at this point of how he came into possession of that firearm. Thank you. Thank you.