Police found two people killed in a suspected murder-suicide after breaching the walls of a Severance home while responding to a report of gunshots following a disturbance on Wednesday.
After police breached the walls of the home in the 800 block of Emerald Lakes Street, they reported finding the body of a minor with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. They also reported finding the body of a female who appeared to have sustained a gunshot before her death.
“The team was very methodical and patient and did everything it could. We did numerous callouts anticipating the party may be inside the house,” Severance Police Chief Ken Chavez said. “But it’s a bad outcome, obviously. We have a homicide and suicide, both, and a family tragedy.”
Police said they exhausted all options before obtaining a search warrant to breach the house and that there were no other suspects involved and no further threat to people in the area.
Police blocked off the neighborhood in Severance earlier in the afternoon, just after 2:30 p.m., when neighbors reported a juvenile suspect came outside and fired two shots, hitting a car across the street. After about a minute, another shot was fired inside the house.
At the time, police thought two people were still inside the house, and they believed at least one was alive, but they could not establish contact.
“We’re still trying to find out the status of the inside of the house,” Chavez said as police were staged outside the home.
When police arrived, they helped an elderly man climb out of a window of the house. He was not seriously injured but was taken to a hospital with minor injuries sustained climbing out the window.
Officers from Severance, Windsor, Ault, Eaton, Colorado State Patrol, Greeley SWAT and the Weld County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.