Denver police on Wednesday admitted that “something could have been done differently” in an officer-involved shooting in the city’s lower downtown area early Sunday morning that sent six bystanders and the suspect to the hospital. 

The shooting occurred in a matter of seconds, from the time Denver police saw a suspect brandish a gun, to three officers firing seven rounds at him, to bystanders and the suspect being wounded, according to information presented at a news conference Wednesday at police headquarters.

Cmdr. Matt Clark, head of the department’s Major Crimes Unit, and Chief Paul Pazen spent an hour going through three officer-involved shootings in the last week, in which two suspects died. They answered every question reporters asked.

But most of the news conference was spent on the LoDo shooting, which occurred at 1:35 a.m. Sunday in front of the Larimer Beer Hall at 20th and Larimer streets. Officers said Jordan Tyler Trey Waddy, 21, of Denver, brandished a fully-loaded and cocked 10 mm Rock Island M1911 A2 and pointed it at two officers, likely James Cambria and Kenneth Rowland, according to a probable cause affidavit. Other officers at the scene included Megan Lieberson, Brandon Ramos and Alex Enriquez.

“There certainly have been a couple of narratives surrounding this incident. One is that subject was not armed. That’s not the case. The other is that officers indiscriminately fired into a crowd. The officers were mindful of the crowd and two officers had a backdrop which was nowhere near the crowd,” Clark said.

Waddy, who is still in the hospital, was arrested on suspicion of menacing and possession of a weapon by a prior offender. He was on probation for felony aggravated assault convictions. Charges could be filed after police deliver the investigation to District Attorney Beth McCann on Thursday. Body camera footage will be released after those charges are filed, Clark said.

“Officers flashed their flashlights and announced their presence as Denver police officers in an effort to stop the physical altercation that was occurring,” Clark said. “Uniformed officers contacted this subject initially, giving him verbal direction to stop” and show his hands.

“He disregarded their commands to stop, and to comply, and went back onto a sidewalk,” Clark said. “He was now feverishly trying to remove something from his hoody jacket pocket, or front pocket, with his left hand. The subject eventually pulled out a handgun and held it in a manner that the muzzle of the gun was pointed in the direction of the officers.”

Two of the officers, likely Cambria and Rowland, fired six rounds while Waddy stood in front of the brick exterior of the Larimer Beer Hall. Waddy then moved to the sidewalk behind an SUV and continued to point the gun at Cambria and Rowland, Clark said (without identifying the officers).

Another officer saw this and fired one round at Waddy, who had moved in front of a group of people.

“This officer was aware there were individuals behind the subject and worked to obtain a clear sight picture of the subject before firing the single round,” Clark said. “There’s no evidence that the subject discharged the firearm during the incident.”

The three officers who fired their weapons have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard operating procedure when an officer discharges a firearm.

All six bystanders who were injured in the shooting — the sixth victim came forward Tuesday — have been released from the hospital, Clark said.

“We are deeply concerned for those who were injured during the incident and are working to provide all the available resources and support to them as they heal,” Clark said, including money for medical treatment and lost wages, help from the Victim Services team and information from police on the investigations.

“Certainly they didn’t go in with the intention of injuring other people. They were trying to mitigate the threat, did the best they could initially to contact the subject in the street at a safe location,” Clark said. “He certainly could have gone the other direction and fled, but he chose to stay in that area, pull a firearm out directly in front of the police officers.”

The officers were patrolling the area, blocking off streets to car traffic and trying to prevent fights and violence — which has been their practice when the bars close in LoDo.

“The officers’ thought (process) was that they are regularly down there and they deal with physical conflict regularly,” Clark said. “They break up fights, help intoxicated people, prevent crime and regularly take firearms off of people downtown without any issue whatsoever. … They try to ensure that people have a safe environment to enjoy while they’re downtown.”

There are two concurrent investigations: one into criminal charges against Waddy and the other into the officers’ actions. The second investigation is being handled by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Colorado State Patrol, the District Attorney’s Office, Internal Affairs and the Office of the Independent Monitor.

“I think the officers did everything they could at the time,” Clark said. “Looking back, six people got injured and I think you’d have to conclude something could have been done differently.”

Chief Pazen added: “We’re responsible for our response and we will thoroughly review our response in all three of these cases. We consider ourselves a learning organization and we will continue to try to improve. Our focus on each one of these is to keep our community safe. Taking an illegal gun off the streets is inherently dangerous.

“We have recovered dozens of illegal guns in this area in an effort to curb the increase in gun violence in one of our hotspots — lower downtown.”

In the other two instances, suspects were killed by officers.

One of the incidents occurred July 15, in the 4900 block of North Washington Street, where officers exchanged gunfire with suspected gang members who were found with illegal firearms, cocaine, methamphetamines and fentanyl. After officers were fired upon, they fired 30 rounds, Clark said. The suspect, 26-year-old Michael Silleto,  was killed, and two others were arrested.

The second stemmed from a domestic violence incident in the 300 block of East 51st Avenue on Friday. The suspect, 33-year-old Chaz Gallegos, was holding his girlfriend as a human shield with a knife to her throat, Clark said. Officers tried for more than six minutes to “de-escalate the situation” so they could provide first aid to the bleeding woman, but the suspect refused to cooperate. An officer fired a single shot from his “urban rifle” and killed the man. The woman was treated for stab wounds to the neck and released from the hospital on Tuesday, Clark said.

Three officers in those two cases have been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.

“You’ve heard me talk about this, almost ad nauseam: Illegal firearms is our biggest problem in our city with too many people,” Pazen said. “We’re at 53 murders for the year. We’re 20% more than we were at this time last year and last year was an unacceptable number. We’re on pace to exceed any year in modern (Denver) recorded history.”

He pointed out that Wednesday was the 10th anniversary of the Aurora theater shooting that left 12 dead and 70 wounded.

“We as a community, not just as a police department, we as a community have to stand up and say that’s not allowed here, that we have to keep our people safe from all forms of violence,” Pazen said. “We stand with our community to try to do that.

“We will continue to work to try to address this unacceptable amount of gun violence that’s happening in our community.”