WESTMINSTER, Colo. -- A blazing gun battle ended in death just after noon Thursday, as police and two bank robbery suspects exchanged gunfire in front of horrified witnesses at a busy strip mall and a major intersection.

By the time the rolling gunfight ended, two suspected bank robbers were dead and two Westminster police officers were wounded. The officers were identified as Officer Sean Chandler and Deputy Chief Tim Carlson.

According to witnesses who saw the chase end at 120th Avenue and Federal Boulevard, a police officer in a black unmarked car was pursuing a silver car north on Federal when he attempted a "pit maneuver" to spin the car around on 120th Avenue. The police car smashed into the right rear of the silver car, causing it to spin and come to a halt.

A female passenger jumped out of the car and fired at police officers and the officers returned fire, hitting the woman, witnesses said. The woman was taken about 12:30 p.m. to St. Anthony's Central Hospital, where she was pronounced dead a short time later.

The driver of the getaway car was also shot and killed. His body was still in the Subaru Impreza, with his seat belt on, more than four hours after the chase ended. The car was riddled with more than two dozen bullet holes. The officers' car windows were shattered and also pockmarked by gunfire.

Chandler and Carlson were both shot. Carlson was grazed by a bullet and treated at the scene. Chandler was shot in the hip and taken to St. Anthony's Central Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Westminster police spokesman Trevor Materasso.

The identities of the suspects have not been disclosed. Witnesses said the man and woman looked very young, possibly in their late teens or early 20s. Their names are expected to be disclosed after the Adams County coroner completes their autopsies on Friday.

It's not clear how many times the suspects were shot.

More than 30 evidence markers could be seen on 120th Avenue around the cars, marking shell casings and other evidence.

Several witnesses at the nearby Baker Street Pub and Grill were having lunch on the outside patio when they said it sounded like 30 to 50 gunshots were fired between the suspects and the police officers in front of them.

All of the customers dived for the floor, including a woman with a 2-year-old girl.

"I just heard popping -- boom boom boom boom. Between 50 and 100, just continuously," said witness Joyce Crumplar, who said she was terrified for her life when the shots rang out about 100 yards away. "We were scared. She was in her high chair. I just pushed her back in the high chair. I didn't want to get her out. She lay flat and she was quiet, and we just laid there. We just kept staying down on the ground. We didn't feel like moving much."

Gunfight Began In Strip Mall

The incident that started it all was a bank robbery at the 1st Bank at 120th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard at 11:51 a.m., dispatchers said. The robbers sped away in a silver Subaru Impreza.

A Federal Heights police dispatcher told 7NEWS the pursuit began minutes later when an unmarked Westminster police unit spotted the suspect's vehicle stopped near a Safeway gas station at 103rd Avenue and Federal Boulevard in Federal Heights, about 3.7 miles away.

The suspect vehicle sped off through the shopping center's parking lot as someone in the suspect's car shot out the back window and began firing through the rear windshield at the unmarked Westminster police car behind it, witnesses said.

"There was one car going down the road here, and a cop was just following him, going fairly slow. When they got right over here, the guy just shot three or four times right in front of us," said Chad Grothe, who was working with a construction crew pouring concrete near the gas station.

"I ran and hid behind that gas station teller," Grothe said. "You could hear the bullets going into the car, too. Yeah, it was scary ... Not a good day."

Witnesses at that strip mall, which includes a Money Tree, a Chick-Fil-A, a Chipotle and a Dairy Queen, said bullets were virtually flying everywhere, and everyone who heard it was making a mad dash for cover.

A man who had just stepped outside the Ace Hardware said he could hear a bullet whizzing by.

"I heard three pops -- pop, pop, pop -- and then instantly a whistle just came flying by my head," said witness Allen Lawrence.

A Dairy Queen worker said she was getting ready to clean the front window when she saw the commotion and saw everyone outside duck for cover.

"All of a sudden the undercover car turned on its lights and then I see one guy hit the ground and people running around," said Dairy Queen worker Bobbie Brown.

She said when she heard the gunshots, she ran behind the ice cream shop's counter, and threw herself on the ground.

Cara Cordova was outside her apartment, about a quarter mile away, when a bullet punctured her apartment wall.

"I heard a bullet whiz over my head," Cordova said. "I knew exactly what it was. It was very scary."

Westminster police said they could not confirm that their officer fired shots at the car during the chase through the strip mall.

Witness Sees Man Fire Outside Driver's Side Window

Renita Radtke was at the stoplight at 120th and Federal, heading east on 120th, when she saw the suspect vehicle turn from northbound Federal to eastbound 120th -- flying past her.

As he turned the corner she saw the man put his arm out the driver's side window and fire several shots at the multiple police cars tailing him, Radtke said.

One officer hit the suspect vehicle and spun it around in the median, causing the airbags in the suspect's vehicle to go off, she said.

When the gun fire started she ducked in her seat. She said officers were on the other side of the suspect vehicle firing in the direction of her car, so she couldn't do anything but take cover.

Radtke said she saw people on TV criticize police actions, for taking part in the broad daylight gun battle, but as a first-hand eyewitness, she commends the officers for quickly resolving what could have been a really ugly scene.

Witnesses See, Hear Volley Of Gunfire

A photo taken by an eyewitness at the end of the chase showed a number of police officers approaching the silver Impreza with guns drawn.

Jeff Reed, 45, was running errands when he found himself with a front-row seat as the deadly shootout erupted.

Reed, a lab technician, was driving westbound on 120th Avenue in his purple Pontiac Grand Prix when the car in front of him suddenly slowed down and veered to the side of the road.

In the eastbound lane, he spotted several police cars surrounding a silver compact pointed the wrong direction and thought it must be a traffic accident.

"Once I saw police officers standing in their shooting positions, I knew it wasn't an accident," he told 7NEWS. "I noticed eight, nine, 10 police officers pointing weapons at the car, so I immediately stopped.

"As I soon as I stopped, I just heard a volley of gunfire. I sat there for what seemed like eternity -- but it was about 10 seconds -- and figured, 'Ahh, I just probably better get out of here,'" he said.

An officer running toward him waved for Reed and other drivers to "get out of there."

Reed made a U-turn and drove away. He and other drivers stopped down the road to share their harrowing experiences.

"One guy said he was sitting at the stop light on a motorcycle and he heard the bullets whizzing over his head. And he got the heck out of there, too," Reed recalled.

Even though a pink stuffed animal was found on the road after the shootout, Westminster police said no child was in the suspects' car.

The suspects are from Colorado, but their next of kin are not, so police are not releasing their names until their families have been notified.

7NEWS has confirmed that the silver Impreza is a rental car, rented from Enterprise.

The intersection of 120th Avenue and Federal Boulevard remained closed through the evening rush hour, and was reopened just before 7 p.m.

Jim Reuter, president of the data corporation for 1st Bank, said no one inside the bank was harmed during the bank robbery. It's not clear how much, if any, money was taken during the robbery. Witnesses said the couple came into the bank armed, but with no masks or disguises. The man demanded the money from the teller and the woman stayed quiet, witnesses said.

Chandler has been with the Westminster Police Department since 1998 and Carlson has been on the force since 1987, Materasso said.

Westminster police were also involved in a fatal shooting in July. Officers shot and killed a man after an incident where two police cars were rammed by a driver in a stolen car.

The investigation into this shootout will likely be complicated since it spanned three cities -- Broomfield, Federal Heights and Westminster -- and involves a bank robbery, which is the jurisdiction of the FBI.

Do you have a tip about this story? Call us at 303-832-0200. If you were a witness, you can send your photos of this incident to myreport@thedenverchannel.com.

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