Hostage-taker dies and suspect arrested after hours-long standoff near Denver

BROOMFIELD, Colo. (AP) — A woman was fatally shot Thursday during a standoff that lasted more than three hours near Denver, with a male suspect being shot by police before being arrested and taken to the hospital with serious injuries, authorities said.

After negotiating with the suspect, officers forced their way into the apartment in the Arista Flats complex in Broomfield where the 34-year-old man was holding the woman hostage and arrested him, said Rachel Haslett, a Broomfield police spokeswoman. The woman was taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds. She later died.

Haslett said an officer fired his weapon inside the apartment, but did not say whether he hit anyone. She said she did not know how many shots were fired during the standoff, but said there was an exchange of gunfire between police and suspects. Haslett said she did not know who shot the woman, and that the shooting is under investigation.

“He threatened to hurt people,” said Haslett, who did not name the suspect and said she did not know what weapons he may have used.

Several police officers fired their weapons and some suffered minor injuries, Broomfield police said in a statement Thursday afternoon. They have not yet announced charges against the suspect or the name of the woman who was killed.

The standoff at the apartment complex occurred as people were getting ready for work in Broomfield, a predominantly middle-class city of about 75,000 residents about 15 miles northwest of Denver.

Authorities sent a telephone warning to residents to stay safe or leave the area.

Heather Tallant said she was walking her dog outside her room when something flew over her head and hit her bedroom window.

“I saw it hit my window and I was just gone,” said Tallant, who ran barefoot out of the building after the shooting stopped and past the police line. “I was shot at,” she said, dropping to the ground.

Nate Schamel, who lives across the street from Arista Flats, said he heard sirens and saw police officers with guns across the street telling him to stay inside. An officer later told him to leave the house. When he did, he heard gunshots, he said.

Amy Johnson Kemner, who lives on the floor above the suspect, said she was lying in bed when she heard loud thuds that sounded like nails being hammered into floorboards.

Kemner said as she was walking down the stairs, she was yelled at by a SWAT team who told her to turn around and barricade herself in her apartment.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rachel Haslett's name, which was once misspelled as “Hazlett.”

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Hanson reported from Helena, Montana.