Police give update on shooting situation at Broomfield apartments

e e e e e e e e e we are once again that breaking news in Broomfield following an active shooting situation at the Arista Flats apartments on Central Court near the First Bank Center right now they are giving a press conference with an update on the situation let's listen in s l t I'm the public information officer with the Broomfield Police Department so a little bit about what happened this morning about 6:34 this morning officers were called to the Arista Flats Apartments that's what you can see behind us in the distance surrounded by that crime scene tape for a disturbance uh when they got to one of the units inside the apartment they heard a male making threats and shortly thereafter they heard gunshots it became very very very unsafe for those officers within minutes as he was shooting not only at surrounding units but also into the parking lot that is why we called it an active shooter situation as there were a lot of people that were in danger and emergency reverse notification in Broomfield we have a lookout alert system that was immediately sent out to Residents and people in the surrounding area asking them to shelter in place you do have to sign up for that so we did get some questions from residents I'll make sure I put that out on our social media later today because it was such a dangerous situation and because he was firing rounds at surrounding units and into the parking lot um SWAT responded along with crisis negotiations we had response from other surrounding law enforcement agencies including the Boulder County Sheriff Westminster Douglas County and North Metro Fire we staged medical and then just basically worked on communicating with this uh gentleman it was a male suspect in the apartment and working to get inside we did not know how many people were inside the apartment with him we knew at least one person from what we were hearing but we did not know how many other potential hostages there may be um the good news is we were able to take that suspect into cust about 30 minutes ago officers were able to uh breach that apartment door they were able to make forced entry and take that suspect into custody I can confirm he and one female victim have been taken to a local hospital I do not know the extent of their injuries at this time so waiting for updates on that but we do have one person in custody and we had one other person a female inside that apartment she is the victim she was the hostage in the situation what was the extent of her injuries I do not have any idea on what her injuries are at this time do you know where the suspect was firing if there were bullets that hit any other buildings or Vehicles yes he did fire and it did hit Vehicles other buildings and other units so this is going to be an active crime scene for a while because we have to process where those gunshots went look for any of those shell casings determine everything that may have happened how many shots he fired so it's going to be an active crime scene and it's going to be closed for a while the nature of his threats and was he threatening to to shoot and kill the woman he had I don't know the nature of the threats I do know though he was threatening to hurt people so that's about all I can confirm right now do you have a name or age of the suspect I don't I do not have an age or a name of the suspect at this time I do not just the Arista Flats apartments right here orange took him into custody roughly around that many minutes ago we heard a big bang and then a whole bunch of other bangs I guess that and officers their correct that was forced entry and one brunville police officer fired his weapon type of firearm at this point I don't we do not know he was giving us a lot of different details about what he was possibly armed with but I don't have that information do we know the relation between those two people suspect in the big I do not I do not know the relationship between them have your people been to this unit or this apartment building before at this particular apartment for any other thre disturbances right obviously there's a lot of people that live in these apartments in terms of a possible history that we have with this individual I don't have all the details on that yet can you talk about the negotiations with thep sure was talking how long did that last yeah so we were called out here at 6:34 and as you can imagine what time is it now 10:34 so it's been almost 4 hours um we start negotiating with the suspect in this case within 30 minutes I mean we were there communicating with him can you tell us just one sec just one sec I'm going to say that again obviously it's been 4 hours it about three and a half hours that we were in communication one way or the other with the suspect so crisis negotiations SWAT surrounding law enforcement agencies just trying to figure out of course the best way to resolve this is safely as possible you're okay quite a few remarked that we had not seen that device if you will that front end loader with the shield brought up to the apartment and used by your people can do you have any description you have any knowledge of that and sure it's how it was used in this case sure so I know that we had our Bearcat on scene which is our swap vehicle um I am not well versed I have to admit on all of the other surrounding law enforcement agencies different vehicles but I can find that out for you know anyse at this time we do not have any reports of any other people being injured in any of the other nearby uh units so we did put that reverse notification out and we did do limited evacuations as safely as we could of course we have to keep in mind the safety of officers and the safety of the residents so trying to get out those who need to be evacuated and then telling others to shelter in place we also put one school on secure Jefferson Academy it is not in the neighborhood but it is close by we did that out of an abundance of caution that's very normal nobody was coming or going for probably about two hours and why were they taken to the hospital they were injured so I'm not going to comment on the injuries at this time do but you don't know if they were injured by shrapnel or glass I do not I do not I'm not um in a place that I can talk about those injuries right now what about the seriousness of the injuries um I don't know that either you said that he fired other was trying to offic he was he was aiming for our officers as well that is why we called this an active shooter I got a lot of questions from the media initially is this a barricaded hostage situation or is this an active shooter and initially it was both I mean we had somebody who was actively firing at our officers other units so a lot of people were in danger I I don't know if you said this at the beginning but did someone from that unit call 911 or was it someone else that reported shots it was a call that came in for a disturbance so somebody nearby that heard yelling you said multiple people were evacuated how many do you know I don't have a number for you yeah do you have an I don't know how many shots were fired exactly but I will tell you they were fired sporadically throughout the process so we wouldn't hear them for a while and then another shot would be fired so it wasn't all at once and what were the loud boom for those flashbangs I don't have the details on that yet because I haven't been briefed by our SWAT team most likely something like that when we make a breach but once I get those details I will share them on social media were any police cars hit by gunfire I do not know neighbors were hit by some of the bullets when it alled when we heard the loud bang several gunshots what should those neighbors do they do have damage to their window should they contact you yes so if you had any damage to your unit officers investigators would will of course be coming to you it's part of the investigation so they'll be coming to look at uh what was damaged shell casings all of that so just uh sit tight investigators will be in touch with you of course I'm sure they already are if they were evacuated but we promise that we'll be in touch with everybody um that needs to be part of this investigation did the suspect who had the weapon have any history with police that you all knew of before you got here not that I'm aware of but I have not also looked into the history of his unit and this unit overall so I can't say for sure or not at this time can you give a rough age of the suspect I do not have that um you mention that reverse and some people might not have have to sign there way peopleand around pulling up in their cars in that parking lot that was being fired at is there a way to better get that information out there or M so the question was about the refers notification system in Broomfield we use a system that's called Lookout alert you can find it at Broomfield uh.org that's the city's website and the best thing to do is just take a few minutes to go on that website and register your cell phone number also put in a perimeter of where you live or may you work or where you may work excuse me why because if you were out for a jog this morning walking your dog as we know it was early a lot of people do jog walk their dogs are leaving for work or school then you would get that notification because you're within that perimeter it only takes a few minutes you can add multiple cell phones you can add email and then you will get that text message letting you know when there is an emergency where you live or where you work and you said you don't know the relationship between the male and the female I do not I do not you said he was just taken into custody a half an hour ago um was that his negotiations failed was that was the entry part of the so we made a forced entry officers did at least one officer fired his weapon so there was an exchange um of gunfire at that point um I don't know the extent between the suspect and the offic officers I just know at least one officer did fire his weapon and then we were able to take him into custody so is it fair to say negotiations work I I can't say because I wasn't part of the in the negotiations I don't know um you know what the mental state was of our suspect um at this point so it I can't really speculate on that was that a Broomfield police officer in tactical gear that went in the apartment it was a Broomfield police officer I do not know if he was in tactical gear this talking about adult and woman yes two adults one female one male we know woman offics that I don't have any information on that and do you know what kind of weapon the officer Ed was it a handgun or a rifle of some kind I don't have any information on that and they would have been wearing a body camera right yes correct interaction correct all of our Broomfield officers wear body worn cameras and if they have their weapons drawn then that automatically initiates the body cams to begin recording be a domestic violence situation that um is something that will need to look into I don't have the details due to their relationship anything else that anybody can think of if um nothing further this will be the only press briefing today but I will continue to put out updates via our social media Facebook and Twitter or X um also we'll put out a press release later today once I get some more comprehensive information I'll share those on our social media as as well as on our website broomfield.org police and if you guys don't have anything further I think that's it okay when when you fire uh arrest charges or when you file some sort of charges against him do we need to bombard you with questions are you going to put that on X and we'll put all that yes once we get the suspect's name um any information on age any charges anything like that I will make sure that we put that out and would you guys consider releasing any body cam footage sooner than later or cuz sometimes the police department will release a little bit right beforehand is that something you would consider Rel yeah that's actually a question that I can't answer because it will determine on the investigation and what command and and the investigative team decides is best for the department so it's always worth asking but I'll tell you we typically don't release it when it's an ongoing investigation okay thank you guys all right you've been listening to Rachel Haslet with Broomfield police describe what unfolded this morning we learned a lot of information in that press conference right there but the big information being that we know one suspect is in custody that person and one victim have been taken to a local hospital we do not know the condition of either of them right now now night news reporter Brianna Fernandez has been out there for the last several hours and Brian you've been talking to a lot of residents in the area as well tons of residents actually uh the latest one that I spoke to she actually lives not too far from here she has a bullet through her window there's glass all over her room she says now I do want to show you the scene because it's changed a lot since we've been here again we were first on scene on this developing story this active shooting investigation police have put up crime scene tape there's Yellow Tape no one can get through no can come out we have state troopers also blocking this intersection Broomfield police as well and we had SWAT negotiators here on scene now let's unfold what that press conference was because I just heard a tad bit of what we heard from Broomfield police we know one male suspect was taken into custody now a male and a woman a female victim were both sent to the hospital unknown injuries at this time we know that that suspect aimed at officers there was a lot of people in danger again we just heard from that woman who you're just going to hear from actually in just a couple of seconds she had that bullet go through her window she was in her room she said that she was scared she was shaking so I want you guys to hear from her just a bit could see straight into the guy's apartment thank you and I was walking my dog and the a lady came up to me and she was like hey do you know what's going on and that's when a gunshot flew over my head into my bedroom window I ducked and I've never screamed that loud in my life I can talk about like when I was talking to Heather she was shaking it had just everything had just happened she was told that she needed to leave her apartment so of course it was a very scary situation for a lot of residents who live here at the Arista flat apartment again that first call came in just before or around 6:30 this morning we arrived on scene about 45 minutes later and we were the first crew on scene giving you the latest updates both on air and online I know our new a new Roy she's going to break down what the press conference was between that suspect that female victim that were sent to the hospital for now I'm live here in Broomfield Brianna Fernandez for 9 news I'm going to send it back to you guys in the studio and Briana we appreciate your great reporting throughout the morning on this situation and for this latest update thank you so on the other side of the building that's where anusua stays she kind of had a little bit better of a vantage point especially when everything kind of started to conclude here so anua is joining us now and anua you saw the stretchers you saw the ambulance you saw kind of unfold from the outside on the other side of the building yeah you know and we got a little bit of clarity like when I was just last chatting with you guys uh in the last hour from Broomfield police that it was around 9:45 when I told you guys about that huge flash flashbang and then several shots that were fired that was the officers breaching into that unit forcing their way in and they said at least one Broomfield police officer then opened fire at that point and that's when we started to see two of those stretchers being taken out we now have it confirmed that it was a man a suspect and a woman who were both taken in the hospital at this point as you can imagine we're so early into the investigation we don't have a lot of details on how they are doing or the extent of their injuries at this point we also don't know the relationship between that man and the woman only that there were two adults involved in this uh you know basically what police are telling us is matching up exactly what we were seeing throughout the morning uh we heard heard from folks who were just getting ready for the day who started to see or hear those shots fired from the surrounding units officers say it became such a scary situation because not only were they hearing about threats but they also knew that this person was shooting at surrounding units into the parking lot uh the Pio said at one point they were even firing shots at the officers as well and that's why they were doing those limited evacuations as best as possible while trying to keep everyone's safety in uh in mind and top priority at this point uh there's a lot of questions that have to be still answered about how the situation unfolded the negotiations themselves lasted about 3 and a half hours or so and again we were hearing from folks here police also saying that they were encouraging that person inside to put their guns down they were trying all of the different tactics to try to deescalate the situation but ultimately at 9:45 with that flashbang and with those that last round of shots that we heard which is how that incident ended and then the folks were being taken out on a stretcher and then we saw multiple ambulances with their lights on with their sirens on leaving the area and then we started to see the SWAT team and the firefighters kind of packing up from there so you know we're starting to get a little bit more clarity Cory and Jordan about what happened this morning but we also know that there's a lot of questions that still have to be answered yeah absolutely true anha thank you so much for your reporting yeah as Anusha was saying we do not know how the condition of either one of these people the suspect or the victim we don't know if the victim was hurt before this happened or if or if that female was hurt when they went into the apartment there's a lot of questions about um the suspect's background if there were any problems in that unit ahead of time so this is something that our team is really working on to get you some more answers of course this was happening for the course of about 4 hours we spoke with two different people that were living in the area as well on the phone right here on 9 News who described how active it was basically that entire time and of course even though they do have someone in custody again that is the suspect and the victim who have both been taken to the hospital we don't know their conditions but we do know that this is going to remain a very active scene as this investigation plays out and as we work to get you more answers we are going to work to get that information we'll bring that to you once we learn it across the networks of 9 news as well as on 9news.com we'll have more information for you on 9 News at noon and then of course on 9 News at 3:00 as well right now that's it for us thank you very much for being with us for this breaking news we will return to regular programming