DENVER – Police are searching for a gunman who shot a man during a series of three carjackings in west Denver on Monday afternoon.
Late Monday night, police identified the man as 19-year-old Alejandro Theodore Noel.
“He’s armed and dangerous and we’re trying to capture him as quickly as possible,” Denver police spokesman Sgt. Steve Warneke said of the gunman, who last seen running in the area of West 44th Aveue and Quitman Street. Police were searching that area.
Police said the one-man crime wave began about 4:45 p.m. when the gunman shot a man who was sitting in a silver sport utility vehicle in the 1400 block of Newton Street.
That man was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
“I go right away outside (to see) what happened, but I can’t go outside right away (because) the man, he put the gun on me,” said the victim’s grandmother, Virginia DeHernandez.
Police initially thought a 12-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet during the shooting, but the child was not hurt, Warneke said.
“I just thought it was firecrackers,” said a neighbor who did not want to be identified. “Firecrackers or gunshots, and that’s unusual. The middle of the day? Come on.”
After the shooting, police say he crashed a van and carjacked a vehicle in the 1500 block of Meade. The gunman then carjacked a U.S. Postal Service truck at West 24th Avenue and Julian Street, a police officer at that scene told 7NEWS. The postal worker was not harmed, police said.