DENVER — Authorities in Denver are working at the scene of a fatal shooting and car fire in a private neighborhood.
Greg Pixley, public information officer with the Denver Fire Department, said firefighters responded to a report of a fire following a shooting on E. Dartmouth Avenue in the Gun Club Green neighborhood just after 6 a.m. Monday. Firefighters found one woman who had been shot. She was pronounced deceased at the scene, according to the Denver Police Department.
Denver Police Department spokesperson Doug Schepman said the call was about a vehicle that had crashed and caught fire and a report of shots fired.
When investigators checked the vehicle's registration, they found it was registered to a house a few homes down from where the crash occurred. When investigators went to the house, they found a man inside the home with a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition, Schepman said.
In an update just after 3 p.m., the DPD confirmed the man had also died from his injuries. The department also confirmed the man and woman who died were in a relationship.
It's not clear what caused the fire, Pixley said. Investigators were working on getting a warrant to search the home where the man was found Monday morning.
Russ Skigen pulled the woman out of the car Monday morning and said she had injuries to her head. He said the two were new in the neighborhood and that he believed they had just moved there in April or May, but he had never met them.
"It was horrific, seeing something like that happen. It was surreal. It didn't seem like it was actually happening, but it was. And, you know, we're just kind of coping with it," Skigen said.
Mike Long said he was walking his dog when the shooting occurred and that he initially thought it was fireworks. He said he had said hello to the neighbors in the past and called the shooting sad and disturbing.
"I went back inside, and about five minutes later, emergency vehicles started showing up," Long said. "And I realized there was more than firecrackers."
According to video from AIRTRACKER7, two cars were in a home's driveway and appeared to have caught fire.
The fire department will investigate that side of the incident while the Denver Police Department investigates the shooting.
Pixley said the fire was mostly contained to the two cars, with little damage to the home.
