Denver, Colorado (DPD / News Release) — On Wednesday, June 7th, 2023, at about 4:12 a.m., a uniform Denver Police officer was conducting, directed patrol at the Quality Inn in the 2600 block of North Zuni Street, at Speer Boulevard. The officer was seated in the driver seat of his marked police vehicle, directly in front of the entrance of the hotel. The officer had been at the location for several minutes, when a male exited the front doors of the hotel and walked directly towards the officer’s vehicle, suddenly without warning or prior interaction. The male was identified as, 35-year-old Nicholas Lendrum. Lendrum produced a firearm from his jacket and began firing directly at the officer, to the passenger side of the vehicle, striking the officer multiple times.
The officer immediately exited his vehicle and moved to the back of the patrol car. Lendrum went around the front of the officer’s vehicle and continued firing upon the officer while attempting to use his police vehicle as cover. The officer returned fire, striking Lendrum multiple times. The injured officer called for additional assistance from other officers, as well as ambulances to respond to the location. Responding officers took Lendrum into custody. He was promptly assessed by a paramedic crew and transported to Denver Health Medical Center, where he was later pronounced deceased. Additional officers attended to the injured officer and promptly loaded him into a police vehicle and transported him to the hospital for assistance. He has since been released from the hospital.
Through the investigation, it was determined that Lendrum drove to the location and parked on the West side of the building at 4:02 a.m. he remained near his vehicle for several minutes before walking around the building. He went in front of the officer’s vehicle and directly into the hotel. At that point, there was no interaction between the officer and Lendrum. While inside the hotel, Lendrum inquired about renting a room, from the clerk before determining the cost was too high for him. He walked out of the hotel through the same main doors, where the officer was previously parked and approached the officer’s vehicle, discharging his firearm multiple times.
Investigators determined Lendrum fired 18 rounds from a Glock 26 9mm handgun. Lendrum had an additional magazine which was holding 16 rounds. Lendrum was also found to be in possession of a loaded 38 caliber revolver, which was not fired during the incident. The involved officer discharged 17 rounds from his duty handgun at towards the suspect. The injured Denver Police officer, was wearing a ballistic vest. The officer was struck by 3 of the rounds that were fired by Lendrum. All 3 impacted the officer’s ballistic bulletproof vest. While the rounds we’re stopped by the officer’s vest, he experienced significant bruising and pain at the impact sites from the rounds that were fired. He has since been released from the hospital and continues to recover.
News by Breaking911
