At least 10 people were wounded in a mass shooting in Denver early Tuesday morning in an area where basketball fans were celebrating the Denver Nuggets’ first NBA championship in team history, according to ESPN. One of the people wounded was the suspect who was taken into custody by the Denver Police Department.
The shooting happened around 12:30 a.m. local time, about three and a half hours after the Nuggets beat the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Police said the suspect was one of seven people who suffered non-life-threatening injuries. It was reported that multiple shots were fired in a dispute between several people roughly a mile from Ball Arena.
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“As far as what led up to this altercation that resulted in the shots being fired, that’s still under investigation at this time,” police spokesperson Doug Schepman said. “It did occur in the area where we had the largest gathering of folks celebrating during the night.” Schepman also said a small crowd was in the arena at the time of the shooting but had “diminished quite a bit at that point.” He also mentioned that the shooting took place likely in a crowded area since people are coming out of bars after the game.
“We had a lot of officers in that immediate area of 20th and Market when the shooting occurred, which is why the response to it was so quick,” he said. Eight people were hospitalized at Denver Medical Center with one in critical condition, one in fair condition and six in good condition.
Nuggets are NBA champions for the first time since becoming a team in 1967. They were led by two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić who won the NBA Finals MVP trophy after scoring 28 points with 16 rebounds and four assists in Monday’s game.
“It’s good. It’s good. We did a job. I think we played the best basketball I’m not going to say in the postseason, but I think we were there playing the best basketball,” Jokić told reporters after the game. “Today we didn’t make shots, but still, we defend. I think it’s a great journey. Like you said, 41st pick, but that doesn’t matter. When you’re here, you’re a player. They have a couple guys that weren’t even drafted and they’re still playing and contributing to them to win.”
