By Wayne Harrison
The Denver Channel
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — Two suspects in an armed carjacking on Lookout Mountain were captured Wednesday afternoon after a short-lived crime spree.
The events shut down the westbound lanes of Interstate 70.
A sheriff’s deputy reported “shots fired” from the suspects after he spotted a carjacked blue Subaru Outback heading up Mount Vernon Canyon at about 4 p.m.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said the suspects are a white male and female. The deputy radioed that the male suspect was armed with a rifle and a handgun, which confirmed by the sheriff’s office.
Airtracker7 was over the scene and video from our chopper showed the suspect armed with a rifle and a handgun. He was walking nonchalantly through the woods when he was first spotted by the helicopter. A woman could be seen walking some distance behind him. She was taken into custody without incident at 415 p.m. by a Jeffco sheriff’s deputy along U.S. Highway 40 near Mount Vernon Road.
At 4:17 p.m., the suspect entered a nearby home and drove a stolen car out of a closed garage, smashing through the garage door. The suspect drove to the end of a dead-end road next to Interstate 70 and then tried to carjack another vehicle on the interstate by waving his weapons at drivers. Several slowed. That’s when a law enforcement officer engaged him, apparently shooting at him several times.
The suspect laid down his rifle but refused to surrender, running down the interstate. He was finally grabbed and captured by a motorcycle deputy and thrown to the ground. Stunned motorists walked up and helped subdue the suspect before other deputies arrived to secure the scene.
Traffic was back up for at least a mile in the westbound lanes of the interstate. The westbound lanes were then closed at Genesee at 4:30 p.m.
Reprinted with permission from The Denver Channel.