Lakewood police shoot at vehicle suspected of shooting fireworks at homeless encampments

Lakewood police responded to a call just before 2 am Thursday of two people in a car shooting Roman-candle-like fireworks at homeless encampments along West Colfax Avenue near Teller Street.   

"A Lakewood sergeant happened to be in the area and witnessed a disturbance between a transient male and that vehicle, to the point where the transient male threw a rock through the back window of that car," said Lakewood Police Agent Paul Osckel.

Osckel says while the sergeant was confronting the man who threw the rock, the car did a U-turn and returned to the scene. 

"The sergeant at the time thought that the vehicle might be coming to strike him. One round was fired at the vehicle by that Lakewood police sergeant, but nobody was hit, and no injuries were reported," said Osckel.

Alexei Fernandez was working at a nearby hotel when he heard the fireworks.

"Today was actually pretty quiet, so when I heard them, I didn't think much of it, but then I heard it real close and it kind of shook the building a little bit because it was pretty loud," Fernandez said. "I got a call from my maintenance guy who asked if someone's been shot because it was that loud."  

That's when Fernandez says he got out his drone and began filming. The camera turned on just as the police arrived.

Everyone involved was taken to the Lakewood Police Station for interviews and the Jefferson County Critical Incident Response Team was called in to investigate and determine if the sergeant followed protocols when discharging his weapon. 

Fernandez called the whole situation disappointing.

"There's a lot of homeless and it's unfortunate. It hurts that there are people here taking advantage of that and shooting these people when they're so defenseless," said Fernandez.