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Colorado Springs Shooting: Four Dead, Including Gunman, After Shooting Spree [Video]

By Meaghan Ellis
Published on: 02:29 PST, Nov 1, 2015

A shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has left four people dead, including the suspected gunman. According to the Daily Mail, the Colorado Springs Police Department responded to a call about shots being fired on the morning of Saturday, October 31. They were also given a description of the suspected gunman and immediately found the suspect matching that description. When local authorities arrived at the scene, they were met with chaos. After a brief chase, the suspect — whose name has not been released — began shooting at officers. When the officers returned fire, they killed him at the scene.

According to KRDO, officers were initially dispatched to North Prospect Street at approximately 8:45 a.m. that morning. Upon their arrival, they found the lifeless body of one unnamed victim. Witnesses say the gunman shot up the entire second floor of a home on that street. However, the shooting did not stop there.

“I was just sitting on my patio taking my dog out when I saw someone come around the corner, being chased by the police,” said witness Aaron Nicks told KKTV.

Minutes later, police reportedly found the suspect on another street nearby. His spree continued on Platte Avenue and Wahsatch Avenue, which is where the bodies of two other victims were found. According to KKTV, the gunman’s rampage ended at a local Wendy’s restaurant. That is when the suspect reportedly began firing at officers. After a brief exchange of gunfire, the alleged gunman was killed.

A number of witnesses have also spoken with local news outlets sharing their account of the horrific shooting. A witness named Matt Abshire said that he actually followed the victim from the scene of the first shooting and saw him open fire on two other victims. Although the names of the victims have not been released, several news outlets have reported that the victims shot at the second location were females.

“I looked out my kitchen window and I saw a man in a green jacket firing an AR-15… waited a few seconds, went out my house, looked to my left and saw a man down the street, probably 50 feet. I started calling him and I called the cops,” Abshire told the Colorado Springs Gazette.

“Still following him, he’s heading left on Platte towards Palmer High School… probably a hundred yards past El Paso Street, he stops, turns to his left, fires four shots, shoots two ladies, one in the jaw, one in chest if I’m not mistaken.”

Then, another witness named Ross Trottier told KRDO that he’d probably be dead if he hadn’t reacted quickly. After being caught in the middle of a battleground, he reportedly decided to lie on the ground as officers exchanged fire with the gunman. “The cop pulled up and said drop your gun and as soon as I heard that I got on my stomach in the median and they started shooting at each other and the bullets went over me,” Trottier said.

At this point, a motive has not yet been established, and the specific timeline of events has not been released. According to ABC-7, there is even a possibility that the shooting was “random.”

Colorado Springs Police Lt. Catherine Buckley briefly released a statement about the shooting, revealing the crime scene did span over several street in the downtown Colorado Springs area. However, definitive details about the shooting are still scarce. “At this point, we know that we have several crime scenes that spread through a multiple-block area of the city to include some of the major thoroughfares into our downtown area,” Buckley said.

The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave in accordance to the department’s policy, reports ABC News. The investigation is reportedly being turned over the to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

[Image via YouTube Screen Capture]

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