Colorado police officers pinned down by sinper fire www.privateofficer.com

EDGEWATER, CO April 7 2011– Two police officers from Edgewater were pinned down behind a brick wall for about 30 minutes early this morning, bullets whizzing past them from an unknown location. A SWAT team intervened and 11 people are in custody.

“We believe we have the shooter,” Edgewater police spokesman Steve Davis said.

Davis said it all started around the 12:30 p.m. as a call of shots fired near West 20th Avenue and Marshall Street in Edgewater.

Davis said an Edgewater officer in the area reported the shots at the same time the 911 call came in to Jefferson County Sheriff’s dispatchers.

The officer got out to investigate and was fired upon, Davis said. A second officer arrived and was also fired upon, and the two took cover behind a brick wall about a half block from where they believed the shots were being fired.

Davis said the shots were coming in volleys of one to eleven bullets at a time.

“The officers were scared,” Davis said, adding the officers could not pinpoint where the gunfire was originating and therefore couldn’t return fire.

A reverse emergency notification call went out to residents within a quarter-mile of the situation and a SWAT unit from Jefferson County was called in, Davis said.

The officers narrowed down the location of the shots to either 2010 Marshall Street or 2000 Marshall Street, according to Davis.

Connor Kelleher, who lives in the 1900 block of Newland Street, said he heard nine consecutive gunshots and he stepped outside his home to try and determine what was going on.

“Did I really just hear that?” Kelleher recalled thinking after the first series of shots.

It didn’t take long for an answer, he said, when the first series of shots was quickly followed by another round.

“I’m getting back in the house,” Kelleher said.

Kelleher said about 250 shots were fired – he kept track along with a couple of neigbors – over the course of about 45 minutes.

The shots kept coming until police had the power in the area turned off, that’s when the gunfire ceased, Kelleher said.

Joyce Marquez huddled with her 12-year-old son, Guillermo Calderon, in the boy’s bedroom.

The pair live in a brick home just across the alley from where the shots were being fired.

“It was a very scary night,” Marquez said this morning as she was hustling Guillermo off to school. “It was really close.”

Guillermo, who attends North Arvada Middle School, looked tired as he climbed into his mother’s car. The student didn’t get to sleep until after 3 a.m., he said.

They relaxed a bit after a police officer knocked on their door and talked with them about the situation.

“I felt much better,” Marquez said.

A SWAT team came in and shut power to a two to three block area. Officers entered both addresses and were able to take 11 people into custody. They were being questioned this morning. Their names were not released.

Police said they also recovered a handgun from one of the homes, which have been used in the shooting.

“There may be a possible second shooter in that group,” Davis said, adding that police believe they have everybody in custody who was a threat during the situation.

No injuries were reported in the incident.

The two officers who were pinned down in the shooting were with the department for nine and 10 years respectively, Edgewater police said.

Law enforcement from Denver, Lakewood, Jefferson County, Wheat Ridge, Golden and the Colorado State Patrol assisted securing the perimeter.

Davis said three infants were inside the home at the time of the gunfire, but all three were taken into protective custody.

A man police suspect of being the shooter laughed when he was taken into custody, witnesses and Davis said.

“He was laughing like he was under the influence of something,” Kelleher said. “He was laughing like he was on dope. He was laughing like it was a joke.”