AURORA, Colo. --
One car theft suspect was killed, one suspect injured and an Aurora police officer was injured in a confrontation between several police officers and three car theft suspects late Sunday night.
The incident began when officers were called to investigate a possible car theft in the 400 block of North Laredo Street shortly before midnight.
This location is an industrial area with auto shops and numerous parked cars. Several cars have been stolen from the area recently, and other cars have been broken into, said Aurora police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson.
"Officers responded and confronted three individuals that were in a back lot. At that time, the three suspects that were confronted, they jumped into a truck and shots were fired," Carlson said.
Police believe the driver of the truck drove at an officer, hitting him with the truck.
Officers opened fire, hitting two of the three men in the truck.
One man died at the hospital and the other was being treated at a nearby hospital, Carlson said. The third man was hurt when the truck crashed after the shooting, Carlson said.
An officer was also transported to the hospital with a head injury. He was released early Monday.
He is the third Aurora police injured in a week.
Last Tuesday morning, an Aurora police officer was wounded in the wrist trying to end a hostage situation near East First Avenue and South Sable Boulevard.
Daniel Garcia, 25, died from multiple gunshot wounds in that incident, the Arapahoe County coroner's office said. Garcia recently walked away from a halfway house, where he was serving time on assault and menacing charges, according to court records.
On Thursday, an Aurora police officer was hit in the leg by bullet fragments during a traffic stop near Emporia Street and East Colfax Avenue.
The suspect later took a family of four hostage. Early Friday morning, SWAT officers killed the suspect after he opened fire on them.
"Unfortunately this week, it has been a hard week for us," said Carlson. "It's been a busy week. But you know as police officers we know when we come out, we are going to put our lives on the line at times. We've had some heroism this week at the Aurora Police Department for sure. We've saved lives. That's one way to look at it."
The officers involved in the latest incident are not being identified. As is standard procedure in all officer-involved shootings, the officers who fired their weapons have been placed on administrative leave pending an internal review of this incident.
"It's under investigation: how many shots and where they all came from," Carlson said.
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