COMMERCE CITY, Colo — It was a violent weekend in Commerce City, with four people killed in three separate shootings. The most deadly shooting happened Sunday morning, where two men were killed and police were led on a chase that ended in Aurora.
Police responded to E 65th Ave. and Monaco Street after their new Shot Spotter technology detected reports of gunfire. Two men tied to drop off a third man with a gunshot wound at a local fire station, but took off when police arrived.
Police pursued and the chase ended in Aurora, when the two men crashed their car in a neighborhood on E Batavia Drive and Fundy Way. The car struck a trailer, which was sent skidding into a neighbor's driveway.
"I just heard screeching and a big kaboom," Ron Scott, the owner of the trailer, said. Police pulled all three men from the crash. The man with the gunshot wound was dead.
"It was terrifying," Scott said.
The driver and surviving passenger were both taken into custody and at last check, were at the hospital for injuries they got in the crash.
This was the third case of gun violence over the weekend in Commerce City. The first happened on Friday at a 7-Eleven parking lot on E 104th Ave. and Highway 85, where one man was killed. A woman was also shot and suffered critical injuries. Police believe the man responsible for the shooting fled and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday.
The second case happened around 5 p.m. on Saturday. The shooting was in the parking lot of Pioneer Park on Holly Street and E 60th Ave. One man was killed and police took a person of interest into custody.
"It was a violent weekend," Joanna Small, a spokesperson for the Commerce City Police Department, said. "We probably average about five, maybe six homicides a year, and we're now at four for one weekend.”
The shootings this weekend have already equaled the city's total number of shootings from the previous year. Data from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation showed that there were six Commerce City homicide cases in 2022 and four in 2023.
"It's crazy," Juan Simental, a neighbor in Aurora who witnessed the crash, said.
Simental was at home with his two children when they heard the crash. The trailer sent pieces of debris toward Simental's home and he worries the string of violence will continue.
"It's just so sad for these people," Simental said.