Chase, Shootout Leads To Overnight Manhunt, Arrest
Home Invasion Results Chase, Shooting
POSTED: 7:40 pm MDT May 7, 2007
UPDATED: 11:19 pm MDT May 8, 2007
DENVER -- A suspect was captured Tuesday morning after a bungled home invasion led to a high-speed chase, a shootout near Interstate 70 and Tower Road, and an all-night manhunt.
The suspect was captured after police dogs found him hiding underneath a mobile home in an Arapahoe County trailer park. He was taken into custody at 9:40 a.m., nearly 12 hours after the manhunt began, 7NEWS reported.
Another suspect in the home invasion had been arrested Monday night, when he jumped out of a fleeing vehicle.
Neither men have been identified.
The strange string of events began just after 7:30 p.m. in the 21000 block of East 50th Avenue in Denver, when two armed men showed up at a home and asked for a person by name.
Ricardo Garcia, who lives at the home, says one of the men asked for someone named Robert. No one by that name lives there.
Garcia says another man, who was out of view, showed him what appeared to be a semi-automatic weapon and stormed into the house.
"I had to protect my family," Garcia told 7NEWS reporter Lane Lyon.
Garcia says he began struggling and fighting with one of the men and even got a gun away from the man. Garcia says he tried to shoot but the gun was not loaded.
Both suspects then fled the home.
Garcia says when he noticed their red, Dodge Durango did not have a license plate, he jumped into his black Escalade and began chasing the men.
Police say shots were fired, though it wasn't clear if the gunfire was exchanged between the two vehicles.
(It would be quite a feat with an unloaded firearm) No one was reported being hit, said Detective Virginia Quinones.
Garcia said he was shot at by the suspects, but did not return fire.
Officers made several attempts to stop the victim from chasing the suspects. Eventually, a police officer asked OnStar to call the victim and tell him to pull over.
He did stop in the 32000 block of East Colfax and was questioned. He was not arrested.
Police continued to chase the Durango and at one point, the passenger in the getaway vehicle bailed out as it continued to head east. He was picked up by Arapahoe County searchers.
Police then intensified the manhunt and set up a perimeter near Interstate 70 and Airpark Boulevard, where they thought the second suspect might be after he had abandoned his car.
SWAT teams swarmed the mobile home park and reverse-911 calls were placed to residents in the area. Residents were urged to stay inside and lock their doors. They were told that a man with a gun was at large and they were warned to be cautious.
"That's what I moved out here for -- so that I didn't have this stuff going on in my neighborhood -- and it still happened," said Paul Hines.
(<sigh> The old "It can't happen here" lament again )
Authorities conducted a systematic search of the area overnight and continued to look for the gunman. Police dogs were used on the ground and helicopters were used in the air to search for the suspect. No vehicles were allowed in or out of the area until they were searched.
Then on Tuesday morning, a police dog led authorities to an area underneath a vacant mobile home and forced the suspect out in the open.
"I didn't hear him say anything. He was shaking on the ground and he looked injured. He had blood on his shoulder," said witness Gary Beach.
A K-9 had bitten the suspect in the shoulder as it tried to force the suspect out, police said. The suspect was taken to Denver Health to be treated for his minor wounds.
Everybody in the mobile home park, who were up all night on pins and needles, are now breathing a sigh of relief to the end of a manhunt and the end of a long, chaotic night.
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