DENVER: Nine people were wounded in a mass shooting early on Tuesday in Denver, in an area where basketball fans had been celebrating Denver Nuggets' first NBA title win, police said. A suspect was taken into custody.
The shooting happened around 12:30 AM, about three and a half hours after the game. Three of the injured are in critical condition, the Denver Police Department said in a statement. The suspect, a man, was one of the seven people who suffered injuries believed to be non-life-threatening.
The shooting happened about one and a half kilometres from Ball Arena, where the Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat on Monday night.
Police spokesperson Doug Schepman said, "As far as what led up to this altercation that resulted in the shots being fired, that's still under investigation at this time. It did occur in the area where we had the largest gathering of folks celebrating during the night."
The area was taped off and evidence markers were at the scene.
A small crowd was in the area at the time of the shooting, he said, but had "diminished quite a bit at that point." He said the shooting was in an area where a lot of people might have come out of bars after the game. Police interviewed witnesses and Schepman described the ongoing investigation as "expansive."