Newsman: Seven people are dead, including a gunman, after a shooting at a birthday party where friends, family and children gathered to celebrate early Sunday morning. Police said they believe the gunman was the boyfriend of one of the female victims. He shot six people before taking his own life, police said. Children who were at the party were unharmed and are in the custody of family members, police said. Police believe the suspect drove to the home where a birthday party was being held and opened fire before killing himself.
Colorado Springs police received a call about a shooting just before 12:20 a.m. (2:20 a.m. ET), the department said in a news release. Officers responded to the Canterbury Mobile Home Park, where they found six dead adults, along with a seventh person who was injured and later died at a local hospital.
“From the officers who responded to the shooting to the investigators still on scene, we are all left incredibly shaken. This is something you hope never happens in your own community, in the place that you call home,” Colorado Springs Police Chief Vince Niski said in a statement.
Officials have not released the names of the victims nor the shooter. A motive has yet to be determined, and an investigation is ongoing.
“Words fall short to describe the tragedy that took place this morning,” Colorado Springs Police Chief Vince Niski said. “As the chief of police, as a husband, as a father, as a grandfather, as a member of this community, my heart breaks for the families who have lost someone they love and for the children who have lost their parents.
“From the officers who responded to the shooting to the investigators still on scene, we are all left incredibly shaken.”
In a statement Sunday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said the shooting was “devastating, especially as many of us are spending the day celebrating the women in our lives who have made us the people we are today.”
“Families torn apart,” he said, “and at a birthday party no less.”
It was a “senseless act of violence” that has left the community mourning, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said.
“We ask the public’s patience with the investigation and we seek the sensitivity of our media partners as CSPD completes a thorough investigation to provide answers to the families and friends impacted by this tragedy,” Suthers said in a statement Sunday.
It was Colorado’s worst mass shooting since a gunman killed 10 people at a Boulder supermarket March 22.
In 2015, a man killed three people, including a police officer, and injured eight others in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.
