COLORADO SPRINGS – Two people are dead following a shooting at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central in Colorado Springs in what could be a murder-suicide.
Despite police quickly determining there was no threat to the public, the chaos still terrified folks who saw officers with guns drawn, and running toward the hospital after the shots rang out.
Shortly before one o’clock, those first shots rang out inside UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central, which prompted a considerable emergency response.
“I heard sirens and didn’t think it was anything unusual for being around a hospital and then I noticed more and more cars and sirens,” described Lynette Beach, who was at a nearby bus stop.
Colorado Springs Police deployed a large team of officers to cover the hospital’s sizable campus and protect the crowds inside.
“[I] saw the police get out of their car with their guns drawn,” she recalled.
“One went up to the entrance and a couple others with rifles went around and I think they went to the emergency [area]. And I knew something serious was really going on.”
“Police officers don’t just run around with their guns out,” Kimberly Munyan pointed out. She going inside to visit someone in the hospital when she saw the police presence.
Officers didn’t have to fire any shots, though, as they discovered a man and a woman dead inside a patient room.
Police are investigating the possibility of a murder-suicide.
The two people who died were not part of the hospital staff and police have not confirmed their identities.
Even though no one else suffered any injuries, the folks who saw it all unfold are still processing those panic-filled moments of uncertainty.
“Scary. Extremely scary,” said Munyan.
“It was very traumatic. You know, we couldn’t figure out what was going on out here.”
