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Shooting suspect at-large after firing weapon at Glendale strip club staff

Posted at 10:35 AM, Oct 22, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-22 19:47:14-04

DENVER – A shooting suspect is at-large after gunfire rang out at a strip club in Glendale early Sunday morning.

Glendale Police Department officers said a group of four-to-five men were trying to get into the Shotgun Willie’s strip club in the area of South Colorado Boulevard and East Virginia Avenue just before 3 a.m. when they were denied access for an unknown reason.

As the group was being escorted out, an altercation ensued and someone in the group pulled out a gun and shot at staff, according to a Glendale Police Lieutenant Roy Martin at the scene.

A Shotgun Willie’s employee told Denver7’s Amanda del Castillo the victim in the shooting has worked at the strip club “for a long time” in different positions and was the manager on-duty Sunday morning. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

"I was there and I heard the shots -- clear as day," witness Drake Ramirez told Denver7.

Ramirez said he was outside when the altercation happened. Once he heard gunshots, he said he ran back inside the venue. 

"It started as a fist fight altercation and turned into a shoot out," he described. "Some dude came back bloody."

Ramirez described hearing two gunshots.

Tiffany Craft was also there as those shots rang out, though she didn't hear the gunfire, "It was way too loud inside for anyone to hear that, but I heard screaming."

The two describe seeing people ducking inside of the club. The two added there was chaos and confusion because the outside activity wasn't clear to those inside.

The gunman fled the scene and police are looking for him as well as the other men in his group. Police don’t have a possible suspect description or identification.

The strip club was scheduled to be back open for regular hours at noon.