1 injured, suspect in custody after shelter-in-place at Broomfield apartments

We are once again that breaking news in Broom following an active shooting situation at the Aristo 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 le tt I'm the public information officer with the Broomfield Police Department. So a little bit about what happened this morning. About 634 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. When they got to one of the units inside the apartment, they heard a male 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, an 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 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 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 the good news is we were able to take that suspect into custody. About 30 minutes ago. Officers were able to 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. 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 of buildings or? 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. Was he threatening to shoot and kill? 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. I don't, I do not have an age or a name of the suspect at this time. I do not just a risk of flats, apartments right here around that many minutes ago, we heard a big bang and then a whole bunch of other bangs. I guess that force and did officers fire their weapons, correct? That was forced entry and one broom, police officer fired his weapon. 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? I do not, I do not know the relationship between them. 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. So we were called out here at 634 and as you can imagine what time is it now? 1034. So it's been almost four hours. We start negotiating with the suspect in this case within 30 minutes. I mean, we were there communicating with him just one second, one second. I'm going to say that again. Obviously, it's been four hours, about 3.5 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 as safely as possible up to the apartment and it sure. So I know that we had our bear cat on scene, which is our swat vehicle. I am not well versed. I want to admit on all of the other surrounding law enforcement agencies, different vehicles, but I can find that out for you at this time. We do not have any reports of any other people being injured in any of the other nearby 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 are 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. You know, they were injured by shrapnel or I do not, I do not, I'm not in a place that I can talk about those injuries right now. What about the seriousness of the? Um I don't know that either. You said that he fired at, 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 don't know if you said in the beginning but did someone from that unit call 911 or was it someone else that reported? It was a call that came in for a disturbance. So somebody nearby that heard yelling, I don't have a number for you. Yeah. Do you have an approximate number of shots that you require and I know I can't get specific. Right. 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 was the loud for those flash bangs? 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 or any police cars hit by gunfire, I do not know were hit by the bullets when it all when we heard the loud bang, several gunshots. What should do? Yes. So if you had any damage to your unit, officers, investigators will of course be coming to you. It's part of the investigation. So they'll be coming to look at what was damaged, shell casing all of that. So just 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 in touch with everybody 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. You mentioned that, that like we regard that you gave out and that some people might not have gotten it, have to find out. Is there a better way to continue it if it appear pulling up their cars in the parking lot that was being fired at? Is there a way to get that information out there? So the question was about the reverse notification system in Broomfield, we use a system that's called lookout alert. You can find it at broomfield.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 where 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 or 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. Negotiations failed. Was that was the, so we made a forced entry. Officers did at least one officer fired his weapon. So there was an exchange of gunfire at that point. I don't know the extent between the suspect and the officers. I just know at least one officer did fire his weapon and then we were able to take him into custody. I, I can't say because I wasn't part of the, in the negotiations. I don't know, you know what the mental state was of our suspect at this point. So I can't really speculate on that. Was that a police officer in tactical gear? That was a Broomfield police officer? I do not know if he was in tactical gear we're talking about. Yes, two adults, one female and one male. Or is there any, I don't have any information on that? And do you know what kind of weapon the officer used? 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. Yes. Correct. 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. That is something that we'll need to look into. I don't have the details due to their relationship. Anything else that anybody can think of? If 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. 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 well as on our website, broomfield.org/police. And if you guys don't have anything further, I think that's it. Ok? When you file arrest charges or when you some sort of charges against him, do we need to bombard you with questions? Are you going to put that on? And we'll put all that. Yes, once we get the suspect's name, 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 sometimes a police department will release a little bit right beforehand. Is that something you would consider? Yes, that's actually a question that I can't answer because it will determine on the investigation and what command 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. Ok. Thank you guys. All right. You've been listening to Rachel Haslett 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. Nine news reporter Brianna Fernandez has been out there for the last several hours and Brianna, you've been talking to a lot of residents in the area as well. Tons of residents. Actually, 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 act of shooting investigation, police have put up crime scene tape, there's yellow tape, no one can get through, no one 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 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. You could see straight into the guy's apartment. Thank you. And I was walking my dog and 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 the hat. 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 a flat apartments. Again, that first call came in just before or around 630. This morning, we arrived on scene about 45 minutes later and we were the first crew on seen giving you the latest updates both on air and online. I know our new Anusha Roy. She's going to break down what the press conference was between that suspect that female victim that was sent to the hospital for. Now. I'm live here in Broomfield, Brianna Fernandez for nine news. I'm gonna send it back to you guys in the studio and Brianna, we appreciate your great reporting throughout the morning on this situation and for this latest update. Thank you.