Following a “active shooter” situation at a “packed” Colorado entertainment center, police killed an armed man and arrested a woman. Two people were hospitalized with injuries.
The shooting took place at Main Event in Highlands Ranch on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 11:51 p.m. local time, according to a press release shared on Facebook by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
After receiving a call reporting a “active shooter” at the establishment — a center that advertises “family-friendly fun” such as arcade games, bowling, and eating — a deputy arrived on the scene in “less than a minute,” Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly said in a press conference following the shooting.
The deputy arrived and “encountered a male in the parking lot armed with a gun,” according to the DCSO. After failing to obey “several commands” to drop the weapon, “the male then turned toward the deputy, at which point the deputy fired his weapon and hit the male.”
Officers at the scene “attempted life-saving measures,” but the male was “pronounced deceased shortly thereafter,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies then found a female victim who had been shot in the chest and sustained a foot wound inside Main Event, where they later discovered that a shooting had occurred “involving two females,” according to Weekly. According to police, the female victim was hospitalized alongside another person who had a non-life-threatening medical condition.
Following the DCSO’s initial investigation, the female who shot the injured woman was identified as the shooter and is currently in police custody, according to Weekly. Police have yet to identify the armed male or the woman believed to be the shooter.
It is unclear whether the armed male killed outside was directly linked to the shooting inside the establishment, according to the sheriff, who told reporters, “That’s still under investigation at this point, but we do believe there was a connection there.”
The DCSO did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Sunday, February 9.
Weekly also stated during the press conference that “multiple rounds” were fired inside the establishment, which was “packed” with customers at the time of the shooting.
“There were a lot of patrons still here when the shots rang out,” he said, calling it a “very dangerous situation” that could have been “much worse.”
“Obviously, you have a large entertainment center like Main Event here, you have shots being fired inside,” according to Weekly News. “Fortunately, we had a deputy sheriff who was close by, and unfortunately he had to take a life, but a very dangerous, chaotic scene and we still have a lot to work through, but this could have been a lot worse.”
