WASHINGTON | A man acting alone killed five people and injured two others, including a police officer, on Monday in Colorado state in the United States, before being shot, US police said.
• Read also: Father of teen killed by stray bullet wants police jail
• Read also: Los Angeles police want to shed light on teenage girl’s death by stray gunshot
Starting Monday afternoon, the man opened fire at several locations in nearby towns of Denver and Lakewood, police said in a late night press conference.
The gunman first opened fire at a tattoo parlor in Denver, killing two women, while a man was injured, city police said on Tuesday at a new press conference.
The gunman then moved to a Denver residence where he struck a man with a fatal shot outside.
Then he traveled to Lakewood, where he shot a man at another tattoo parlor, police said, before entering a hotel where he fired several shots at a receptionist, also deceased.
Using information from the first attack, Lakewood police were able to identify the perpetrator, who moved again.
“Shots were then exchanged with our agents” and “the shooter (…) was shot,” John Romero, Lakewood police spokesman, said Monday evening, adding that the author of the blows fire had been “declared dead at the scene”.
Touched during the exchange of gunfire, the Lakewood policewoman having shot the suspect will have to undergo an operation, but “she is fine,” John Romero said on Tuesday.
“From what we know, it appears the criminal was targeting specific people,” Denver Police said.
According to its leader, Paul Pazen, investigators have not yet definitively established the motive for the attacks.
“We are too early in the investigation,” he said.
Shootings remain a recurring scourge in the United States, claiming large numbers of victims in a country where the right to own guns is constitutionally guaranteed.