GREELEY, Colo. — The suspect in a shooting outside UCHealth Greeley Hospital that prompted a precautionary lockdown Thursday morning was found deceased and a shooting victim is expected to survive, Greeley police said.
"We are working closely with Greeley police, who think this may be an isolated case of domestic violence," a UCHealth spokesman told Denver7. "While we don’t believe there is an ongoing threat, we have extra security on campus to ensure the safety of our patients, visitors, staff and providers."
Officers with the Greeley Police Department first responded to the scene around 8 a.m., after learning that a 35-year-old woman with multiple gunshot wounds had walked into the hospital's emergency room from the parking lot, where the shooting unfolded.
In an afternoon update, police said the victim is expected to survive her injuries.
Watch the below raw dash camera video of the shooting as it unfolded outside UCHealth Greeley Hospital.
Police identified a 38-year-old man as the suspect. He had fled the scene.
The hospital, located at 6767 W. 29th St., was put on a precautionary lockdown during this time. It was lifted around 11 a.m.
As detectives and officers investigated the shooting scene outside the hospital, they learned that the suspect had fled to a home along the 1900 block of McNitt Street in Evans, which is about 5.5 miles east of the hospital.
Officers who responded to McNitt Street found a car on fire outside the home and called in for help from fire personnel, Greeley police said. Officers "briefly made contact with the suspect" before he barricaded himself in the home, police said.
The Greeley SWAT Team and Weld County Regional SWAT Team were both activated and responded to the McNitt Street home.
"While attempting to reach the suspect, the vehicle fire spread to the residence where the suspect was occupying," Greeley police said in a press release. "Fire crews managed to extinguish the fire and SWAT teams continued their efforts to contact the suspect with no response. Eventually, SWAT made entry into the home and located the suspect, who was found deceased."
Because the McNitt Street home was near Chappelow Arts Magnet School and Dos Rios Elementary School, both schools were temporarily placed on a lockdown status. Evans police were around the schools as a precaution, according to Greeley police. That lockdown status has since been lifted and the school is back to its normal operations.
Greeley police said they do not think this shooting was random. Based on their initial investigation, they believe the victim and suspect knew each other. There is no threat to the public, the hospital or any nearby schools, they added.
The suspect has not been identified by authorities pending notification of next-of-kin.
Evans Fire Protection District Fire Chief Joe DeSalvo said his crews staged about 300 feet from the house and used large, high pressure hoses to attack the flames from the safe distance, knowing that a barricaded person who was possibly armed was inside the home.
"This is a first for me in my 22 years of experience," he said. "We are here, you know, to protect the citizens, but also keeping our firefighters safe. So we wanted to make sure we were able to fight the fires as best we could, but also while keeping the firefighters safe from... whatever was going on inside that house."
Hear more from Fire Chief DeSalvo in the video below.
Danielle Ananea, whose friend works at the hospital, said she lives close by. Her friend heard the gunshots and helped the injured woman inside the emergency room. When Ananea went to the hospital to pick up her friend, she saw a "huge pool of blood, like a trail of blood."
"I am astonished that that person, that woman, is going to be OK, because it was a lot of blood," Ananea said. "(My friend) was right next to her after she had already been shot three times, so it was very scary.”
She said she saw the tires of the Subaru, which she believes the woman drove to the emergency room, were shot out.
Denver7 also spoke with Tony Biederich, who lives in the neighborhood around the McNitt Street home.
"When I saw the smoke, I started walking down here," he said. "When I got far enough to see the car on fire, that's when my mouth hit the ground... When I saw the car on fire, I mean, I saw the flames, and they were not little car fire flames you usually see... This car was engulfed — 20 feet high (flames) at least."
Authorities then instructed him to go back into his house.
A hospital spokesperson said Thursday morning that it was rescheduling some procedures amid the precautionary lockdown.
Anyone with information about the incident who has not already talked with Greeley police is asked to call 970-350-9605.
