DENVER — Chaos unfolded on a Denver street Saturday morning as people woke up to screaming, fighting and guns being waved in the air.
"Once the guns came out and there was wrestling about it, that was kind of scary because I thought, "Wow, that could go off in any direction,"" Jake Schickedanz said Monday.
He says it all began just before 8 a.m. Saturday when a group of suspected thieves crashed a pickup truck into several parked cars on East 2nd Avenue and North Pennsylvania Street.
"[The truck] went reverse, went back into the Land Cruiser and got loose, and then went forward again and then hit the Tacoma, which struck the vehicle in front of it," Schickedanz said.
Shortly after, he started recording on his cell phone as the group prepared to run away, but not before other neighbors caught wind.
"It was not a good situation to be in," neighbor Jan Aleman said.
He watched as his friend tried to perform a citizen's arrest on one of the suspects to prevent him from leaving before police could arrive. What they didn't know was that the suspects were armed.
During the scuffle, Aleman's friend managed to get one of the suspects to drop a gun, but toward the end of the encounter, the suspect pulled out another gun from his backpack and pointed it at the group of neighbors.
"I convinced my friend, "Let's all back off because you don't really want to get shot by somebody,"" Aleman said.
All three suspects escaped before Denver police arrived. Denver7 is still waiting to learn from DPD whether anyone was taken into custody later in the day and whether the involved pickup truck was stolen.
Debris from the initial crash remained on the ground Monday. Pictures Aleman shared with Denver7 show the thousands of dollars he's now responsible for because of someone else's actions.
"Hopefully, they find these people [at] some point in time so they can better their lives, but doing a shootout is not a great way to address this," he said.
Schickedanz says what happened Saturday morning serves as a reminder not to get involved.
"The property damage is not worth your life, so kind of hanging back is probably the better decision," he said.
