DENVER – Aurora police shot a man who died at a hospital after the man barricaded himself inside the Ranger Motel in Aurora after starting a fire there Tuesday morning.
Aurora Fire Rescue responded to a fire at the motel, at the intersections of Colfax Ave. and Lansing Street, around 11:15 a.m. The department said the fire was under control and no injuries were reported just before 11:45 a.m.
Aurora Interim Police Chief Dan Oates said in a news conference just before 4 p.m. that a 51-year-old man who was on parole after a murder conviction was believed to have started the fire in the room he was renting at the motel. Oates said the man initially threatened firefighters with a weapon, then barricaded himself in a room next door.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire, and police evacuated the rest of the building, Oates said.
Around 12:30 p.m., at least one officer shot the man.
Video taken by Denver7 at the scene showed a man leave one of the motel rooms with objects in both of his hands and run toward officers and a K-9 who were feet away on the balcony of the motel. As the man ran toward officers, at least two fired their weapons and struck the man, who fell to the ground of the second-story balcony.
Oates said three officers fired their weapons at the man and an AFR medic on the SWAT team provided medical care, but the man was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. He said officers recovered multiple knives at the scene.
Oates said the man, whose identity had not been released as of 4 p.m. because officers were still trying to notify his next of kin, had a "significant" criminal history including the murder conviction.
The 18th Judicial District Critical Response Team will handle the investigation into the police shooting. Oates said officials were still working to interview more than a dozen witnesses and obtain more video of the situation.
Most lanes of Colfax Ave. were shut down during the incidents.
On Thursday, July 7, the Arapahoe County Coroner's Office identified the man who was shot and killed as Alan Ray Walker, 51.
